• HIV and AIDS recommended readings

HIV and AIDS recommended readings

This article from Human Resources for Health assesses the number of health workers that will be needed in developing countries to deliver comprehensive services, including antiretroviral therapy (ART), to those affected by HIV and AIDS. As the countries with the greatest need for these services are also those health systems are most poorly resourced, the availability of trained health workers will prove the most significant limitation to their expansion.

The research identified a wide range of models for service provision in this area, each of which has a different patient-provider ratio. The article outlines a number of variable factors which determine this ratio. Overall the authors estimate that 1-2 doctors, 2-7 nurses and 1-3 pharmacy staff would be needed to deliver ART to 1000 patients. This is in addition to counsellors, treatment supporters and other staff. This would mean that roughly 20,000 to 10,0000 doctors, nurses and pharmacists would be needed to deliver ART to the 3 million patients that the World Health Organization (WHO) set as a target for treatment. The total number of staff, including counsellors, administrative and technical staff, could be considerably higher. The article recommends that an effective method for gathering data on the staffing ratios in programmes be developed, so that this comparative information can be standardised and used in the development of national treatment policies.

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