The Change Mariner

Botswana's Brain Drain Cripples War on AIDS

New York Times:

As the Bush administration shapes its plan to combat AIDS in Africa, Botswana's president, Festus G. Mogae, said Wednesday that one of the biggest obstacles to a rapid expansion of treatment for people with AIDS in his country is not so much a lack of money or drugs as a dearth of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers. The nonprofit groups, foreign governments and international organizations that have come to help Botswana cope with its AIDS crisis have hired away many skilled health professionals in the country's public health system with offers of better pay and benefits, he said.

Mr. Mogae, who spoke at a day-long conference on the lessons of Botswana's experience sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research organization in Washington, said this internal brain drain had been compounded by the departure of doctors and nurses for other countries. Britain alone has recruited more than 120 of Botswana's nurses, Mr. Mogae said.

Botswana, where more than a third of adults in their prime are infected with H.I.V., the virus the causes AIDS, has sought to counter the loss of talent by recruiting health professionals from poorer African countries, which have their own AIDS crises, as well as from India and Cuba. "We'll be lucky if we get them," Mr. Mogae said at a news conference on Wednesday.