West Africa: When there is no village doctor

DAKAR, 4 February 2009 (IRIN) - The fewer health workers there are, the less chance a woman has to survive childbirth and a child his or her infancy, according to WHO.

In the last such statistics recorded by WHO, the agency in 2006 estimated a shortage of more than four million health workers in Africa and Asia.

The WHO Global Health Workforce Alliance estimates that on average one in four doctors and one in 20 nurses trained in Africa leave the continent to work in wealthier countries for the experience, more pay and better living conditions.

But Mubashar Sheikh, executive director of the workforce alliance, told IRIN prohibiting health worker migration is not a solution. “The movement of health workers can have both positive and negative consequences. [Because] while remittances sent back home contribute to the economic development of the country, health systems in such countries might be weakened by health worker out-migration.”

Rather, Sheikh said the answer lies in training and retaining more health workers in areas that face severe shortages, such as West Africa.

No matter how developed a country's economy is, doctor shortage is a shared burden across West Africa. Even though Cape Verdeans earned 10 times more on average than Sierra Leoneans in 2007, according to the World Bank, both countries struggled to treat the sick.

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