Estimating Health Workforce Needs for Antiretroviral Therapy in Resource-Limited Settings

Efforts to increase access to life-saving treatment, including antiretroviral therapy (ART), for people living with HIV/AIDS in resource-limited settings has been the growing focus of international efforts. One of the greatest challenges to scaling up will be the limited supply of adequately trained human resources for health, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other skilled providers. We found a wide range of staffing patterns and patient-provider ratios in existing and planned treatment programmes. Many factors influenced health workforce needs, including task assignments, delivery models, other staff responsibilities and programme size. [from abstract]