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Doctors fleeing in record numbers
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MEDICAL CRISIS: Ethiopia faces medical melt down
Ethiopia faces a major crisis in its health service as up to 80 per cent of its doctors are fleeing the country.
Unity for Development, revealed that Ethiopia is the African country worst affected by brain drain. The study revealed that currently there are more Ethiopian doctors working in the United States than in Ethiopia.
Many Ethiopian doctors have also left for Botswana, South Africa and the Middle East in search of better pay and conditions. According to the study, more than 3,000 of the country's doctors have deserted leaving only 900 doctors with the challenge of attending to millions of people.
The brain drain has also created an acute shortage of other qualified medical workers in the country's health service, which is why there is one doctor for every 36,000 people. The Ethiopian government is left with no option other than relying on costly foreign experts to fill the gap.
Many Ethiopians are suffering from preventable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and diarrhoeal diseases and Ethiopia's health indicators have been generally poor. The country's health sector is also beset with poor conditions of its services. It is estimated that more than half of Ethiopia's population cannot access health care.
REUTERS/Yonathan Weitzman
Published: 24 September 2007
Issue: 1288
