2007年VOA标准英语-Africa's Conflicts Worsen Health Worker Shortag

By Phuong Tran
Abeche, Chad
28 August 2007

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Doctor Yanali and Dama set off to their consultations in Mali

Health officials throughout Africa are meeting with the World Health Organization in the Republic of Congo, to discuss, among other topics, the shortage of health workers on the continent, especially in rural areas. Phuong Tran visits a hospital in eastern Chad and brings VOA this report from Abeche, Chad.

The World Health Organization's director for Africa, Angolan doctor Luis Gomes Sambo, said Monday that 36 African countries have a shortage of health workers. He said the problem persists despite governments' attempts to recruit more.

Paul Lusamba Dikassa, a World Health Organization director for West Africa, says violence from the region's many conflicts has increased the number of people needing medical care. But, it is the violence that also is driving the much-needed health care workers out of the country in search of better pay, work conditions and training.

"The issue of human resources is a big problem. We have not only problems of quality, that is qualified² human resources, but also problems of quantity. There is the issue of migration," said Dikassa.

Refugees seek health services in Koukou, Chad

In eastern Chad, rural patients with no local access  to medical care turn to city hospitals that are often too overburdened to treat them.

Victims from on-going interethnic violence along Chad's border with Sudan are referred to this hospital if they cannot be treated in clinics near the border.

Chad's rural population competes with victims of border violence, recent flooding, as well as common illnesses.

Abderrahmane Gueye is a 28-year-old Chadian man waiting in a dark hospital room for people to wheel away his wife, who died that morning.

Gueye says his wife's high fever and labor³ pain from her pregnancy⁴ started the previous day. He says they had to wait for the village's only truck to drive 60 kilometers from their village, Amzet, to the hospital in Abeche.

Gueye says his wife died shortly after arriving to the hospital. His child, who would have been his first, also died.

Most doctors at the state-run hospital have been on strike since May over a pay dispute.

On Monday, Chad's union leaders sent out a communique to all government employees that the months-long nationwide strike for public employees was suspended. But it is unclear how long it will take for workers to return.

According to the Chad health ministry⁵, there was one doctor for every 27,000 residents in 2005. In rural areas, the average is one doctor for every 100,000 or more residents.

 

The World Health Organization says the shortage of health workers in sub-Saharan Africa is among the worst in the world. While it has 25 percent of the world's people suffering from disease, it has only three percent of the world's health workers.

1 consultations   

n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找

参考例句：

• Consultations can be arranged at other times by appointment. 磋商可以通过预约安排在其他时间。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Consultations are under way. 正在进行磋商。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。