UN seeks to protect healthcare workers against AIDS

JOHANNESBURG, - A panel of experts has recommended that the US create a body of full-time medical professionals for deployment to countries targeted by President George W Bush's $15 billion global anti-AIDS initiative.

Under the proposed 'Global Health Service', a variety of health-care workers would be sent to countries - which include Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia - to oversee Bush's $15 billion programme.

According to panel chairman Fitzhugh Mullan, the lack of qualified and trained medical personnel was the greatest obstacle to HIV-positive people gaining rapid access to treatment in developing countries.

The multimedia broadcasting service, Voice of America, quoted Mullan as saying: "There is about one physician for every 350 people in the US, whilst in Mozambique, for instance, there is one physician for every 30,000 people. So the human resource circumstance is dramatically and devastatingly different as we enter into an epoch when new treatment and prevention capabilities are at hand."