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Executive Summary
Pages 1-18

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From page 1... ... Since the disease emerged, the dearth of health workers to treat and care for these HIV-infected individuals has reached crisis proportions. The few health professionals practicing in many of the countries highly impacted by HIV/AIDS -- workers often stressed, ill prepared, and scant in number -- must now cope with a staggering new burden of disease while at the same time acquiring the knowledge, skills, and technology to deliver lifelong antiretroviral drug regimens, HIV/AIDS clinical and palliative care, and prevention services. Read the entire page →
From page 2... ... HUMAN RESOURCES FOR HEALTH The health workforce in low-income countries has suffered from years of national and international neglect. Indeed, the dearth of qualified health care professionals represents the single greatest obstacle to meeting health care needs in most low-income countries (Narasimhan et al., 2004) Read the entire page →
From page 3... ... In recent years, these factors have fueled a trend for some health professionals to move from the public to the private sector, to migrate internationally in pursuit of more favorable opportunities, or to abandon their profession altogether. The problem of insufficient human resources for health care is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, which bears 25 percent of the world's overall burden of disease but houses only 1.3 percent of the world's health workforce. Read the entire page →
From page 4... ... Voluntary Counseling and Testing Voluntary counseling and testing with informed consent is the key point at which people learn their HIV status and are offered care services, as well as behavioral and preventive advice. Studies have shown that voluntary counseling and testing consistently increases safe-sex behaviors (CDC, 2000; Spielberg et al., 2003; The Voluntary HIV-1 Counseling and Testing Efficacy Study Group, 2000; Weinhardt et al., 1999) Read the entire page →
From page 5... ... . THE PRESIDENT'S EMERGENCY PLAN FOR AIDS RELIEF During his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003, President George W Read the entire page →
From page 6... ... , a new national initiative encompassing six interconnected programs designed to mobilize, prepare, send, manage, and compensate U.S. health professionals for service in the 15 PEPFAR focus countries. Read the entire page →
From page 7... ... Global Health Service initially focus on the mobilization of clinicians, technicians, and management personnel in direct response to specified in-country needs to achieve PEPFAR goals. In view of the lack of human resources for health in PEPFAR focus countries and many other developing countries, education, training, and development of new, effective configurations of health care delivery in resource-poor settings will take high priority among the U.S. Read the entire page →
From page 8... ... The committee believes this package of programs would significantly augment human resource capacity in support of the PEPFAR goals outlined earlier. The six programs are as follows: � Global Health Service Corps � Health Workforce Needs Assessment � Fellowship Program � Loan Repayment Program � Twinning Program � Clearinghouse Global Health Service Corps The lack of skilled and trained health professionals is one of the principal barriers to the rapid scale-up of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs in the PEPFAR focus countries (Adano et al., 2004; Wyss, 2004a, b) Read the entire page →
From page 9... ... It would be the role of the Global Health Service Corps, working with public health leaders in the PEPFAR focus countries, to provide specialized health personnel for extended assignments to fill these positions and accelerate program scale-up. These highly skilled professionals would be full-salaried employees working in the 15 focus countries for extended periods, yet the cost of their salary and benefits is estimated roughly at only 1 percent of the total PEPFAR budget. Read the entire page →
From page 10... ... The committee recommends that the PEPFAR country teams, in collaboration with ministries of health, initiate assessments of in country requirements for health personnel to achieve PEPFAR goals. These assessments should form the basis for national human resources for health plans. Read the entire page →
From page 11... ... Global Health Service Loan Repayment Program for clinical, managerial, and technical professionals prepared to serve for desig nated periods in PEPFAR focus countries. This program would provide $25,000 toward scholastic debt reduction for each year of service in PEPFAR focus countries. Read the entire page →
From page 12... ... health professionals to engage with maximum speed and effectiveness. Clearinghouse Many organizations currently send health professionals to work in the PEPFAR focus countries. Read the entire page →
From page 13... ... professionals wishing to work in the PEPFAR focus countries as a volunteer or a paid employee. � Cultural and Strategic Issues Reference Site -- a virtual warehouse of information pertinent to all health professionals planning to work in the PEPFAR focus countries, including those seeking a GHS Fellowship, loan repayment, or assignments to the GHS Corps. Read the entire page →
From page 14... ... . The resultant exodus of scarce human resources is a prominent barrier to building in the health workforce needed in the PEPFAR focus countries to meet the increased demands of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Read the entire page →
From page 15... ... An example is the use of personal digital assistants for the management of antiretroviral therapy, patient record keeping, patient tracking, data collection, and knowledge building. Such e-health applications could support the scale-up of HIV/AIDS care and treatment in PEPFAR focus countries by: � Enabling health care workers to increase their efficiency and effectiveness � Providing the local health care establishment with immediate access to experts and expert centers in the United States and elsewhere � Offering individual support to overseas professionals to enable and encourage longer deployments Global Health Education in the United States Global health education is more than the study of diseases of the developing world; it involves a matrix of many converging factors -- economic, cultural, historical, political, and environmental -- that influence health and disease worldwide. Read the entire page →
From page 16... ... health professionals and engage them in growing numbers to join the campaign against the global scourge of HIV/AIDS. REFERENCES AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Read the entire page →
From page 17... ... 2004b. Human Resources for Health Development for Scaling-Up Antiretroviral Treatment in Tanzania. Read the entire page →

From page 1...

... Since the disease emerged, the dearth of health workers to treat and care for these HIV-infected individuals has reached crisis proportions. The few health professionals practicing in many of the countries highly impacted by HIV/AIDS -- workers often stressed, ill prepared, and scant in number -- must now cope with a staggering new burden of disease while at the same time acquiring the knowledge, skills, and technology to deliver lifelong antiretroviral drug regimens, HIV/AIDS clinical and palliative care, and prevention services.

Executive Summary Pages 1-18

Executive Summary
Pages 1-18