"Increased funding from governments and private donors to expand health services holds the promise of saving millions of lives in Africa. But, a severe shortage of health workers on the ground represents a tight bottleneck slowing the flow of resources to patients who need them," said Dr. Paul Farmer, medical anthropologist and a founder of Partners In Health. "Sub-Saharan Africa faces a shortage of more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives and an overall shortage of 1.5 million healthcare workers. The bill introduced today, particularly with its focus on harnessing the power of paid community health workers, is a much needed step toward closing this gap."

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) called the lack of health care workers and capacity in many African nations a "critical obstacle" in the world's fight against HIV/AIDS and a potential outbreak of Avian Flu and in promoting economic development and growth.

"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." Senator Durbin said. "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 African health challenge without finding solutions to this crisis."

"I am very proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bill as it is critical for bolstering our efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases in Africa," said Senator Coleman. "The lack of health care capacity in Africa imposes major constraints on the long term effectiveness of programs fighting HIV/AIDS and other diseases. For this reason, any forward-looking, comprehensive strategy to fight these terrible diseases must include elements that build African health care capacity."

"One of the most critical issues facing Africans today is the massive shortage of health care workers," Senator Feingold said. "The United States has been a leader in addressing HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other global health crises, but this assistance will only be sustainable with the establishment of a strong medical infrastructure. Bolstering health care capacity in Africa is essential for preventing millions of deaths each year and ensuring our efforts to fight these diseases succeed."

The African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2007 seeks to help sub-Saharan African countries strengthen the capabilities of their health systems by:

The bill also requires the President to develop a coordinated strategy to promote health care capacity in Africa. The bill has been referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.