VOA标准英语2011--Doctor 'Brain Drain' Costs Africa $2.2 Billion

Doctor 'Brain Drain' Costs Africa $2.2 Billion

 

There are more than a hundred million health care workers around the world, but in many poor countries, there are only a handful of doctors and nurses to care for tens or, even hundreds of thousands of people.

When poor countries do have medical and nursing schools to train new workers, many of those graduates end up leaving home to work in wealthier countries. A new study puts a dollar amount on the money poor countries lose when their doctors emigrate.

Last year, members of the World Health Assembly in Geneva adopted a voluntary code of practice that discourages wealthy countries from actively¹ recruiting health care workers away from poor countries.

Part of that document called for countries such as the United States, the UK, Canada and Australia to compensate² less affluent³ nations when their doctors and nurses emigrate to work there. But until now, no one had put a dollar sign on the economic value of those medical professionals.

“On average, it’s around $2.2 billion for the number of physicians that are currently practicing in those four wealthy countries,” says Ed Mills, professor of global health at the University of Ottawa in Canada. “That's the cost to African countries. That's using very conservative estimates. If we were to use far more lenient⁴ estimates, it could be more than $10 billion in estimated costs to the African countries.”

African nations lose billions when their doctors emigrate to wealthier countries like the United States, according to a recent report.

Mills looked at data on how much it costs to educate doctors in nine countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, all countries, incidentally, with high rates of HIV infection.

“The costs range anywhere from about $21,000, which is in Uganda, to around $41,000, which is in South Africa," he says. "And that's just the medical education up to the end of medical school. That doesn't include the residency.”

According to Mills, it costs a lot more to train a doctor in the U.S., the UK, Canada or Australia. So, by Mills' calculation, those countries win big when doctors migrate there, saving about about $4.5 billion.

He believes it's important that wealthy countries pay attention to the problem. He praises a U.S. government program to train 140,000 health care workers in the next five years. Short of paying African countries for their immigrants, he says, that program is an example of the kinds of things wealthy countries can do to make up for all those doctors and nurses they've lured⁵ away from home.

1 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

2 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

3 affluent   

adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的

参考例句：

• He hails from an affluent background.他出身于一个富有的家庭。
• His parents were very affluent.他的父母很富裕。

4 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

5 lured   

吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. 那小孩被诱骗上了车，但又设法逃掉了。
• Lured by the lust of gold,the pioneers pushed onward. 开拓者在黄金的诱惑下，继续奋力向前。