BANGALORE, India: When her baby turned blue, Nivetha Biju rushed the child to the emergency room of an Indian hospital and watched helplessly as the baby lost consciousness because the nurses on duty had no idea what to do.
Eventually, a doctor saved the baby's life. But many patients are not so lucky in India and in other developing countries, where a scarcity of doctors and trained nurses means there is often no helping hand in times of need.
A lack of skilled personnel has health systems in developing countries "on the brink of collapse," said Ezekiel Nukuro, an Asia adviser for the World Health Organization.
"In some countries, deaths from preventable diseases are rising and life expectancy is dropping," he said.
Some specialists say the health crisis in such countries is being exacerbated as Western countries relax stringent immigration regulations to attract doctors and nurses. Doing so helps the West's flagging health systems while saving money on expensive training.
But this "brain drain" leaves gaping holes in the health care systems of countries where children die daily from diarrhea and where diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria run rampant.
Aid agencies have warned that a "blue card" plan in the European Union to attract highly skilled migrants like hospital workers, which gained initial backing from ministers, would make the drain worse.
