PHR is calling for programs that will train, retain, and support hundreds of thousands of new health workers needed to deliver HIV, TB, and malaria services in the hardest hit countries.

One of the greatest obstacles to continued progress in the fight against AIDS is the dire shortage of health workers, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization has identified 57 countries, including 36 in Africa, where the current level of health workers makes it "very unlikely" that they will achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals, aimed at reversing the spread of AIDS, malaria and other major diseases and significantly reducing child and maternal mortality.

In Africa, people are dying unnecessarily because there are simply not enough health care workers. Health workers--nurses, doctors, pharmacists, community health workers, laboratory technicians, physician assistants, nurse assistants, mental health workers, managers, and many more—are at the core of health systems everywhere. They diagnose and treat diseases, educate and care for patients and develop and implement policies and strategies to combat disease. But in sub-Saharan Africa, a mere 3% of the world's health workers struggle against all odds to treat 14% of the world's population and combat 24% of the global disease burden.

The World Health Organization estimates that sub-Saharan Africa is suffering a shortage of more than 800,000 doctors, nurses and midwives and an overall shortfall of nearly 1.5 million health workers. A recent estimate of the funds needed to double the health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa placed the cost at an additional $2 billion in the first year, and more in ensuing years—a major investment the US must be part of to ensure all of our global health initiatives save lives and build health systems that last.

PHR is calling for a lifting of the HIV travel ban.

The travel ban is a long-standing human rights violation that has been an embarrassment to the US since it was instituted in the early 1990s. There are no valid public health grounds for the ban, and hundreds of medical and public health organizations have opposed it since its inception.