Tanzania, just like many other countries, has a brain drain problem; not enough health care professionals especially, medical doctors, to treat its 40 million people. To combat this, the Tanzanian Government trains clinical workers to treat most of the common conditions and infectious diseases and deputizes them assistant medical officers, or AMOs. Using the "task-shifting" system, most hospitals are almost entirely staffed by AMOs. Even with AMOs, health prospects in Tanzania are grim: a mother dies in child birth every hour. According to a study released in August in the Journal of Health Affairs, Africa has only 30 percent of the 1.16 million doctors, nurses and midwives it needs.

Ray Suarez reports from Tanzania in this video, click here to watch.

Quotes from the video

• "At this crowded district hospital in Kahama, Tanzania, where patients double and even triple up on beds, there's only one fully trained physician for a population of 800,000. " Ray Suarez, NewsHour
• "In the U.S., if you fell ill and you're taken to hospital, you are going to meet a doctor. In my country, that's a luxury. A lot of people have gone to their graves without meeting a doctor." Dr. David Mwakyusa, Minister of Health, Tanzania
• "If we care about HIV-AIDS patients, if we care about malaria patients, infant mortality, all of these really crucial areas, then we ought to care about how that care is delivered." Lee Wells, Touch Foundation

Questions
1.What is a "brain drain"? Why do health care professionals leave Tanzania?
2. What do you think about AMOs?
3. List all of the reasons that you think Tanzania cannot staff all of its hospitals. What could change these conditions?

Video and story (with small alterations) all courtesy of  PBS at Related Resources Global Health Watch: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/globalhealth