HEALTH WORKER CRISIS UNDERMINES HIV/AIDS EFFORTS IN AFRICA The emerging crisis of health manpower in Africa could defeat the efforts of governments, private health care providers, NGOs, and donors in controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This was one of the principal findings of a consultative meeting on improving collaboration amongst health professionals, government and other stakeholders on health workers issues, held by WHO and the World Bank in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week. Training programmes unsuited to changing health conditions, inadequate cooperation among the many parties concerned, and the losses of staff to opportunities in developed countries, had crippled Africa's health care facilities, resulting in a lack of qualified, motivated doctors, nurses and other health workers, a WHO press release said. This situation had been made even worse by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which further reduced the availability of trained health workers by staff deaths and increased the demand for care, the release added. Despite preliminary information that tens of thousands of African doctors and nurses worked outside the continent, and more were leaving every day, there was still a need to understand the situation by mapping out the pattern of movement. Many governments had underestimated the impact of HIV/AIDS on health workers, and there was a need to strengthen and enhance infection control measures to ensure their safety. The provision of gloves, washing hands, and other basic universal precautions, were neglected by poor health care facilities. A recent conference for nurses and health workers in South Africa had highlighted the need for more education on the impact of HIV/AIDS. Existing nursing curricula had to be reviewed and adapted to reflect the "absolutely devastating situation" of the pandemic. SOURCE: IRIN Plus News, 5 February 2002