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A new study by researchers at Boston University in the US says African healthcare workers are contracting HIV faster than they are being lured abroad by better paying jobs.
According to their findings, published in the latest edition of UK medical journal, The Lancet, twice as many healthcare staffers in Zambia, for example, died from AIDS-related illnesses than were leaving to work in Britain.
"Undoubtedly, the pay of health professionals is low, and the burden of disease in the population makes the job difficult. But the dead do not complain about conditions of service," said Frank Feeley, the report's author.
He suggested that while policymakers might be tempted to focus on halting emigration as the best strategy to strengthen the health service, it was time to put more effort into keeping HIV-positive professionals alive.
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