Hauwa Lassa worked 35 years as a nurse and midwife. Her retirement package is a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
 
In the three states worst hit by the Boko Haram violence in its eight year, health facilities have been damaged and health workers have fled.
 
Estimates suggest nearly 40% of health facilities have been destroyed in the violence, and skilled health workers have had to leave the area entirely.
 
The result is tents put up for health care, buildings undergoing reconstruction—and an alarming shortage of skilled workforce.
 
“I have been working in the field of maternal health in this country for more than 35 years,” Lassa say.
 
“It is now with this crisis going on that the women need support. So I decided to come back to the health centre and help.”
 
Some 190km away in Biu, Mdapilawa Yatzubu, works in a health centre with a specific challenge: she and her colleagues must take on average 150 deliveries a month.
 
She is familiar with complications to expect. Some women bleed a lot, others show signs of hypertension. Some get seizures during or after giving birth, a condition called eclampsia; others pick up a range of infections, called sepsis.
 
Read more at https://dailytrust.com.ng/health-worker-shortage-hits-crisis-mode-and-de...