Global, regional, and national impact of epidemic disasters on health workforce equality between 1990 and 2019: An ecological and modeling study

The study examined the impact of infectious disease epidemics on health workforce (HRH) in 194 countries and territories during 1990-2019. A total of 1,185 epidemic events were recorded. Results showed that each additional epidemic in the preceding year was associated with a decrease in health workforce density of 57.5 × 10⁻³ in the following year. Globally, an average of 17,549 health workers or 2.57 per 10,000 health workers were lost annually due to epidemics. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa experienced the highest losses at 20.52 and 18.03 per 10,000 health workers respectively. Lower-income countries were more severely affected than wealthy countries. The study concluded that infectious disease epidemics worsen global health workforce inequality, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.