Analysis of human resources for health strategies and policies in 5 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, in response to GFATM and PEPFAR-funded HIV-activities.

Background: Global Health Initiatives (GHIs), aiming at reducing the impact of specific diseases such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), have flourished since 2000. Amongst these, PEPFAR and GFATM have provided a substantial amount of funding to countries affected by HIV, predominantly for delivery of antiretroviral therapy (ARV) and prevention strategies. Since the need for additional human resources for health (HRH) was not initially considered by GHIs, countries, to allow ARV scale-up, implemented short-term HRH strategies, adapted to GHI-funding conditionality.

Tackling health workforce shortages during antiretroviral treatment scale-up--experiences from Ethiopia and Malawi.

In many sub-Saharan countries, the health workforce shortage has been a major constraint in the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment. This human resource crisis has led to profound adjustments of the antiretroviral treatment care delivery model in several countries in the region. It also inspired some governments to take swift measures to substantially increase human resources capacity.

Out-of-pocket health expenditure and debt in poor households: evidence from Cambodia.

Objectives: To document how out-of-pocket health expenditure can lead to debt in a poor rural area in Cambodia.

Methods: After a dengue epidemic, 72 households with a dengue patient were interviewed to document health-seeking behaviour, out-of-pocket expenditure, and how they financed such expenditure. One year later, a follow-up visit investigated how the 26 households with an initial debt had coped with it.