The World Health Organization announced Tuesday in a report issued in the midst of the emerging Corona virus crisis, that the world needs about six million additional people working in the field of nursing.
In Cairo, the regional director of the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, Ahmed Al-Manzari, warned that the situation in the region at this level "threatens".
In the report shared by the international campaign "Norsing Now" and the International Council of Nurses, the organization stressed the primary role of professional nurses, who represent more than half of the medical staff.
"Nurses are the main pillar of health systems," WHO Director Tidros Adhanom Gebresos said in a statement.
"Today, many nurses find themselves at the forefront of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic," he added.
The report pointed out that there are about 28 million professional nurses and nurses practicing in the world. Between 2014 and 2018, their number increased by 4.7 million, but "there is still a shortfall of 5.9 million." The shortage is especially concentrated in the poorest countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South America.
The three organizations called on the countries to define their urgent needs in this field and make investment in training, work and rehabilitation a priority.
The director of the International Council of Nurses Howard Caton pointed out that the rate of injuries, medical errors and deaths "is higher when the number of nurses is small."
And Mary Watkins, who co-authored the report, expressed concern that most countries no longer produce enough professionals in this field, and depend on migrants, which increases the severity of the crisis in countries where professional professionals leave.
She said that "80% of professional nurses in the world currently work in the service of 50% of the population."
Watkins asked that medical personnel be subjected to medical examinations to detect the new Corona virus, at a time when reports indicate that 9% of these are infected with the virus in Italy, and 14% in Spain.
"There is a large percentage of medical staff who will refrain from working for fear that they will become ill." Nor can they ascertain, because the examination was not conducted, whether they had actually contracted it and had immunity to it, meaning that they were able to return to work.
From Cairo, the regional director of the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean countries, Ahmed Al-Manzari, warned in a press conference on Tuesday of a shortage of nursing and midwifery teams in the region, noting that this "threatens".
"I call on Member States to intensify investment to reduce an alarming shortage in the numbers of nursing and midwifery teams," Al-Manzari said at the conference held at the WHO's regional office.
Al-Manzri explained that the nursing and midwifery teams make up "more than half of the health workforce in our region, yet we need more teams that have received better education to deal with communicable diseases."