In many poorer countries, a huge brain drain is exacerbating an already catastrophic lack of resources. Wealthier countries are aggressively recruiting trained medical personnel from the developing world. In Zambia, for example, from approximately 1978 to 1999, the public sector retained only 50 of its 600 locally trained physicians.

PHR has presented the G8 and U.N with a detailed plan to alleviate the shortage of health workers and help build health systems responsive to local needs, including those created by the AIDS pandemic.

PHR recommends that donor governments and international institutions link their responses to AIDS to a broader initiative to build equitable health systems in Africa, with special attention to strengthening human resources and ensuring the right to health care for all.

PHR's plan to staunch the brain drain includes improvements in health infrastructure, better conditions, salaries and benefits for health workers, enhanced investment in training institutions, and reduced recruitment of health workers by wealthy nations.

PHR also recommends training on human rights advocacy to combat discrimination; proven interventions such as access to sterile needles and drug substitution treatment; as well as full funding for infection control procedures including ample supplies of gloves, syringes, and sharps with safety features to protect health workers from infections including HIV.