Opinion: To maximize progress in global health, invest more in community health workers
Anna Mzeru’s day shifts as a nurse in a clinic in the Bagamoyo region of Tanzania often stretch into the evening. She and a physician assistant are the only two health workers at a facility that should have nine others to be fully staffed: two more nurses, pharmaceutical and lab help, two general health assistants, and a clerk. The two clinicians see as many as 120 patients a day and attend an average of 15 births per month.
A shortage of front-line health workers — those providing services directly to patients, many of whom live in rural or hard-to-reach areas — is common in Tanzania. The country has a 50% staff vacancy in public health care facilities, with particularly large shortages in rural areas. That creates barriers to delivering quality health care and achieving public health goals, especially for HIV/AIDS prevention, detection, and treatment.
