IRIN examines factors influencing health worker migration and how countries working toward solutions

Jun 14 2011

In this article, "IRIN took a look at some of the push and pull factors behind health worker migration, and what countries are doing to address them." According to IRIN, "The global shortage of health workers is estimated at 4.2 million by the World Health Organization (WHO), but the migration of doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists from poor to rich countries means the shortfall is not evenly distributed - of the 57 nations identified as having reached a crisis point, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa" (6/10).

In related news, a UNAIDS feature story recaps a side event at the U.N. High Level Meeting on AIDS that examined how "the serious global shortage of health workers must be urgently addressed" in order to reach health-related Millennium Development Goals and "scale up comprehensive AIDS services" (6/9).