[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today met with former president of Ireland Mary Robinson in his Capitol office to discuss the fight against HIV/AIDS, the global shortage of health care workers, and the “brain drain” emigration of health care workers from Africa to North America and Europe.

“President Robinson shares my concern for what is taking place in Africa,” Durbin said. “With 11 percent of the world’s population, 25 percent of the global disease burden and nearly half of the world’s deaths from infectious diseases, sub-Saharan Africa has only 3 percent of the world’s health workers. Personnel shortages are a global problem, but nowhere are these shortages more extreme, the infrastructure more limited and the health challenges graver than in sub-Saharan Africa, the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We will not win the war against AIDS or any other health challenge without finding solutions to this crisis.”

Robinson is currently applying her experience in governance and human rights work as president of Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative. The Ethical Globalization Initiative seeks to promote greater human development and security by fostering more equitable international trade and development; strengthening responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa; and shaping more humane migration policies.

Durbin introduced the African Health Capacity Investment (AHCI) Act of 2006 with a bipartisan group of Senators last month. He also offered an amendment to address the “brain drain” issue during the Senate’s debate on immigration earlier this year.

The AHCI Act is a comprehensive measure to help sub-Saharan African nations confront the alarming shortage of health workers. Thirteen countries on the continent have fewer than 5 physicians per 100,000 people.

Durbin pointed to nations like Ethiopia, where there are only 3 doctors and only 20 nurses per 100,000 people. “In the U.S., we have 549 doctors and 773 nurses per 100,000 people. And yet, according to Ambassador Randall Tobias, who has been confirmed as the first U.S. Director of Foreign Assistance, there are more Ethiopian-trained doctors in Chicago than in Ethiopia,” Durbin said.

Under Durbin’s proposed amendment to the Senate immigration bill, those applying for legal status to work as health professionals in America must answer whether they signed a bond or made a promise to work in their home country in exchange for educational support. If the answer is affirmative, then they must fulfill that commitment before being allowed to work in the U.S.

Additionally, the amendment would allow legal permanent resident doctors and nurses to travel to developing countries to assist with health emergencies without jeopardizing their own immigration status in the U.S.

Regarding the critical shortage of health personnel, Durbin pointed to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) which found that “there is a universal shortage of 4.3 million healthcare workers, but the crisis is most severe in Africa.”

“This is an alarming report. It shows that we face a global health crisis with profound consequences,” Durbin said.

The WHO report identifies the increasing migration of health workers from the poorest countries to the richest as representing a “loss of hope and years of investment.”

“This ‘brain drain’ is impacting millions of lives in Africa,” Durbin said. “Africa loses 20,000 health professionals each year; they leave to staff the hospitals and offices of Europe and North America. Their countries lose the investments they have made in their education and training and the benefit of their skills at a time when AIDS is ravishing the African continent.”

Robinson was Ireland’s first female president, serving in office from 1990 to 1997. From 1997 to 2002, she served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Robinson also attended the XVI International AIDS conference last month in Toronto.