Opinion: To maximize progress in global health, invest more in community health workers

Anna Mzeru’s day shifts as a nurse in a clinic in the Bagamoyo region of Tanzania often stretch into the evening. She and a physician assistant are the only two health workers at a facility that should have nine others to be fully staffed: two more nurses, pharmaceutical and lab help, two general health assistants, and a clerk. The two clinicians see as many as 120 patients a day and attend an average of 15 births per month.

A shortage of front-line health workers — those providing services directly to patients, many of whom live