Subject: AFP: East Timor has about 20 doctors
for 800,000 people: WHO
Agence France Presse March 7, 2000, Tuesday
East Timor has about 20 doctors for 800,000 people: WHO GENEVA, March 7
Some 20 doctors are providing care for 800,000 people in East Timor,
the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Tuesday, as it announced the
appointment of an official to help train health care staff.
Just one of the East Timorese doctors is a specialist, WHO said in a
news release.
Jim Tulloch, the director of the child and adolescent health program at
the WHO, will head a new health administration in East Timor in the lead
up to independence.
Two of the priorities will be to train more primary health care staff
and to obtain the services of specialised doctors until local doctors are
sufficiently trained.
By comparison, Australia had in 1998 an estimated 240 doctors per every
100,000 people.
