We Have Changed
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
In the News
A number of items in the news recently regarding human resource problems in health care:
"Only 1.3 percent of the world's health workers practice in sub-Saharan Africa, although the region harbors fully 25 percent of the world's disease."
From 'Why Africa Fears Western Medicine' by Harriet A. Washington, New York Times July 31, 2007
"Well, the landscape of the brain drain is largely the landscape of political economy, meaning that people move from resource-poor settings, to less resource-poor settings, and on to places in which resources have been piled up and accumulated. Personnel go, for example from rural Kenya to urban Kenya to South Africa to Canada to the United States. Economics is part of the motivation to migrate, but there is another factor too: clinical frustration. Many health professionals in poor countries don't have the tools they need to do their jobs- the tools they've been trained to use... Many health professionals wouldn't leave if they had the tools they needed to do their jobs....
We need a commitment to strengthening the participation of local people. We need to make sure that traditional birth attendants, village HIV workers, outreach workers, et cetera are properly trained and supplied and paid for their efforts. This would greatly improve health capacity at a basic level and be a big step in offsetting brain drain."
Paul Farmer; interview in Health Affairs- Vol 26, No 4; July/August 2007
And...
News: Medical "brain drain" hindering AIDS battle
By Michael Perry
Reuters
23. July 2007
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The biggest challenge in the global fight against
AIDS is no longer money for drug research and treatment but the lack of
local health services in nations worst-hit by the disease, the World
Bank said on Monday.
While some two million people were now receiving treatment for
HIV-AIDS, the lack of health services in many African and Asian nations was
adversely affecting treatment programs, said Debrework Zewdie, head of the
bank's global HIV-AIDS program.
An absence of proper pharmaceutical storage had seen HIV-AIDS drugs
expire before they could be administered and a "brain drain" of doctors
and medical researchers meant there was a shortage of people capable of
properly implementing treatment, Zewdie told the International Aids
Society conference in Sydney.
"Our most difficult challenge is not funding, but the limited health
system capacity in countries with the highest disease burden," Zewdie
told reporters at the world's largest HIV-AIDS conference, attended by
5,000 delegates from 133 countries.
"There is a desperate shortage of doctors, health care workers and
researchers, who would not only deliver treatment services but also
coordinate local operations."
The World Bank said Ethiopia had less than 2,000 doctors or about one
doctor for every 100,000 people. Papua New Guinea, which faced one of
the fastest growing HIV-AIDS epidemics, had only 284 doctors -- but half
worked overseas.
"We want to reverse the lack of research culture. We want to reverse
the brain drain and bring our doctors home," said Zewdie.
The United Nations says close to 40 million people are infected with
the AIDS virus and that treatment had dramatically expanded from 240,000
people in 2001 to 1.3 million by 2005.
In June, world powers at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany set
a target of providing AIDS drugs over the next few years to
approximately 5 million people.
A report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at the conference said that
while there had been dramatic price reductions in some HIV-AIDS drugs,
the newer, less toxic drugs recommended by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) had become more expensive.
"The lack of competition and dramatically higher prices for the
newly-recommended WHO first line (drugs) could mean that people in developing
countries may not be able to benefit from improved treatment...," said
Karen Day from MSF.
The MSF report said some new drugs had risen in price by nearly 500
percent from $99 to up to $487. It said "compulsory licenses" were more
effective in bringing prices down than negotiating price reductions with
drug companies.
In January 2007, Thailand issued a compulsory license to overcome the
patent barrier on a HIV drug, allowing the country to legally import the
drug or produce it locally.
"Just one year ago, treating a patient with a second-line regimen ...
in Thailand cost $2,800 per year," said Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, a MSF
campaigner.
"Treating that same patient with a second-line regimen will now cost
$695, four times less. But this is still far too expensive for the
majority of people in Thailand, where the average annual salary is $1,600."
Australia said on Monday it would increase funding for HIV programs by
A$400 million ($350 million), bringing its total commitment to A$1
billion by 2010.
The Australian funding will focus on the Asia-Pacific region where some
eight million people live with HIV-AIDS, said Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer.
"We cannot ignore the social and economic consequences of HIV in our
region. It is predicted that without increased and ongoing action, HIV
will have killed 1.5 million people in Indonesia and 300,000 people in
Papua New Guinea by 2025," said Downer.
SOURCE: REUTERS
"Only 1.3 percent of the world's health workers practice in sub-Saharan Africa, although the region harbors fully 25 percent of the world's disease."
From 'Why Africa Fears Western Medicine' by Harriet A. Washington, New York Times July 31, 2007
"Well, the landscape of the brain drain is largely the landscape of political economy, meaning that people move from resource-poor settings, to less resource-poor settings, and on to places in which resources have been piled up and accumulated. Personnel go, for example from rural Kenya to urban Kenya to South Africa to Canada to the United States. Economics is part of the motivation to migrate, but there is another factor too: clinical frustration. Many health professionals in poor countries don't have the tools they need to do their jobs- the tools they've been trained to use... Many health professionals wouldn't leave if they had the tools they needed to do their jobs....
We need a commitment to strengthening the participation of local people. We need to make sure that traditional birth attendants, village HIV workers, outreach workers, et cetera are properly trained and supplied and paid for their efforts. This would greatly improve health capacity at a basic level and be a big step in offsetting brain drain."
Paul Farmer; interview in Health Affairs- Vol 26, No 4; July/August 2007
And...
News: Medical "brain drain" hindering AIDS battle
By Michael Perry
Reuters
23. July 2007
SYDNEY (Reuters) - The biggest challenge in the global fight against
AIDS is no longer money for drug research and treatment but the lack of
local health services in nations worst-hit by the disease, the World
Bank said on Monday.
While some two million people were now receiving treatment for
HIV-AIDS, the lack of health services in many African and Asian nations was
adversely affecting treatment programs, said Debrework Zewdie, head of the
bank's global HIV-AIDS program.
An absence of proper pharmaceutical storage had seen HIV-AIDS drugs
expire before they could be administered and a "brain drain" of doctors
and medical researchers meant there was a shortage of people capable of
properly implementing treatment, Zewdie told the International Aids
Society conference in Sydney.
"Our most difficult challenge is not funding, but the limited health
system capacity in countries with the highest disease burden," Zewdie
told reporters at the world's largest HIV-AIDS conference, attended by
5,000 delegates from 133 countries.
"There is a desperate shortage of doctors, health care workers and
researchers, who would not only deliver treatment services but also
coordinate local operations."
The World Bank said Ethiopia had less than 2,000 doctors or about one
doctor for every 100,000 people. Papua New Guinea, which faced one of
the fastest growing HIV-AIDS epidemics, had only 284 doctors -- but half
worked overseas.
"We want to reverse the lack of research culture. We want to reverse
the brain drain and bring our doctors home," said Zewdie.
The United Nations says close to 40 million people are infected with
the AIDS virus and that treatment had dramatically expanded from 240,000
people in 2001 to 1.3 million by 2005.
In June, world powers at the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany set
a target of providing AIDS drugs over the next few years to
approximately 5 million people.
A report by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) at the conference said that
while there had been dramatic price reductions in some HIV-AIDS drugs,
the newer, less toxic drugs recommended by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) had become more expensive.
"The lack of competition and dramatically higher prices for the
newly-recommended WHO first line (drugs) could mean that people in developing
countries may not be able to benefit from improved treatment...," said
Karen Day from MSF.
The MSF report said some new drugs had risen in price by nearly 500
percent from $99 to up to $487. It said "compulsory licenses" were more
effective in bringing prices down than negotiating price reductions with
drug companies.
In January 2007, Thailand issued a compulsory license to overcome the
patent barrier on a HIV drug, allowing the country to legally import the
drug or produce it locally.
"Just one year ago, treating a patient with a second-line regimen ...
in Thailand cost $2,800 per year," said Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul, a MSF
campaigner.
"Treating that same patient with a second-line regimen will now cost
$695, four times less. But this is still far too expensive for the
majority of people in Thailand, where the average annual salary is $1,600."
Australia said on Monday it would increase funding for HIV programs by
A$400 million ($350 million), bringing its total commitment to A$1
billion by 2010.
The Australian funding will focus on the Asia-Pacific region where some
eight million people live with HIV-AIDS, said Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer.
"We cannot ignore the social and economic consequences of HIV in our
region. It is predicted that without increased and ongoing action, HIV
will have killed 1.5 million people in Indonesia and 300,000 people in
Papua New Guinea by 2025," said Downer.
SOURCE: REUTERS
# posted by Bridge Media @ 5:33 PM 
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