“We often hear horrific stories from our patients about what they endure during the journey,” said Antonio Virgilio, MSF head of mission in Italy and Malta. “They have crossed the desert, been locked up in prisons where they have been given no food or water, they have been mistreated, beaten up, women have been raped. They go through hell before they finally manage to get on a boat to Italy or Malta. And now they are being sent back to relive this nightmare all over again. This is a huge threat to their health and even their lives.”
On November 18 and 19 the Sierra Leone Investment and Donor Conference will be held in London, which will bring together representatives from the Sierra Leone government and international donors. The purpose of the conference is to establish a broader base of donor support for Sierra Leone. At the conference, the Government of Sierra Leone will launch a plan for a fair health care financing mechanism which includes the abolition of user fees for women and children.
“Every month we admit several cases of diarrhea, measles, dehydration and sometimes meningitis. But now severe acute malnutrition is becoming the most common problem. We are currently treating 90 patients in a space meant for only 60,” said Jibril, the supervisor explains.
“This is the first reported epidemic of dengue fever in Cape Verde and it is huge,” said Dr Iza Ciglenecki, MSF’s Emergency Coordinator in Cape Verde. “With globalisation, dengue fever is appearing in places where it has previously been unknown, it is the most rapidly spreading mosquito born disease in the world.”
Seven MSF vaccination sites, where thousands of civilians had gathered, came under fire during attacks by the Congolese army against the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). MSF denounces this clearly unacceptable abuse of humanitarian aid for military purposes.
“We feel we were used as bait,” said Luis Encinas, head of MSF programmes in Central Africa. “The attacks coincided with the beginning of our vaccination and put the lives of civilians in extreme risk. Thousands of people, and the MSF teams, were trapped in the gunfire.
A retreat from international funding commitments for AIDS threatens to undermine the dramatic gains made in reducing AIDS-related illness and death in recent years, according to a new report by Médecins Sans Frontières (Download the report here). The MSF report highlights how expanding access to HIV treatment has not only saved the lives of people with AIDS but has been central to reducing overall mortality in a number of high HIV burden countries in southern Africa in recent years.
The most glaring sign of the decreasing political commitment to HIV/AIDS is a major funding deficit. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Board is considering a motion to cancel the funding round (Round 10) for 2010; if accepted, no new proposals will be considered until 2011. Similarly, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) plans to “flat-fund” its programmes for the next two years, reneging on promises made last year to support expanded treatment access.
A Month in Focus - October, 2009
Natural disaster in southern Asia and the South Pacific. Cholera outbreak in Papua New Guinea. MSF has been authorized to continue its activities in Iraq. Nutritional emergency in the southwest of Central African Republic. Violence continues against civilians in Upper Uélé, DRC. Find out more...
“Some people had to flee with very few belongings and food, and they are scared so MSF has sent a team for immediate assistance,” said Christine Buesser, MSF Deputy-Head of Mission in Sudan.
AFTER A FIVE YEAR ABSENCE, MSF RETURNS TO AFGHANISTAN
MSF left Afghanistan in June, 2004 after the brutal killing of five of its staff in Badghis province. At that time, many had hopes that Afghanistan was on its way to recovery thanks to a major international investment in development aid. Today, that hope has been crushed. The need for emergency medical assistance has once again become acute.
MSF is not accepting funding from any government for its work in Afghanistan, but chooses to rely solely on private donations.
“We are committed to treating people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis today and we are even piloting new community approaches. But we’re also facing up to the hard facts that we can’t treat TB properly with the drugs and diagnostics at our disposal and that means losing significant numbers of patients. That is why there is such an urgent need for European countries to mobilise more research activity on TB.” - said Dr. Christophe Fournier, President of MSF’s International Council
MSF treats wounded of most recent clash in Jonglei state, southern Sudan
To date, a total of 43 wounded have arrived at the MSF clinic in Pieri. Those who were fortunate were brought by family members on makeshift stretchers, other came on foot, travelling for hours and in some cases days. The wounds ranged in severity from superficial skin wounds to bone fractures and gunshot wounds in the chest and abdomen.
MSF provides assistance to victims of violence in Conakry, Guinea
MSF staff assisting Donka hospital's personnel report that most of the wounded had received gun shot wounds or been attacked with knives. Four women seen by MSF also reported having been raped.
The Positive Ladies Soccer Club - An MSF documentary
A group of HIV women, in one of Zimbabwe’s poorest townships, decide to form a football team and win a tournament trophy. They start off barely being able to kick a ball. People laugh at them; ask them how women, especially sick ones, can possibly play football. The team persists because they want to show the world that even though they are HIV infected they are just like everybody else. Their hope: if they win the tournament, people will stop looking down on them and treat them as equals. Find out more...
New people displaced by the armed conflict in the Nariño department, Colombia
“This situation is recurrent and has completely overwhelmed the authorities’ response capacity at all levels,” explained Ximena Di Lollo, head of activities in Nariño. “As a result, we find that we are quite alone when it comes to providing care to this population in the first moments.”
MSF-East DRC on Twitter
Robin Meldrum, from MSF, is tweeting directly from Congo where he is gathering material for the next part of the Condition: Critical project, focusing on wounds in DRC. Follow Robin on Twitter. Condition Critical blog:Read more...
Chagas: it's time to break the silence
Millions of people are infected with Chagas disease yet they do not know.
They can die in silence, without asking for help, without knowing why. An MSF specialty site focusing on Chagas
We take you to northern Nigeria, where MSF is providing surgery to repair fistulas – life-altering internal injuries that can happen to women who endure prolonged, complicated labor. In Burkina Faso, malnutrition is at its annual peak and MSF is responding.We’ll hear from an MSF doctor who was there at the same time last year. You’ll also hear emergency updates from MSF projects around the world.
Annual Reports
MSF International Activity Report - 2008 edition
Links to the MSF International Activity Report including a PDF file for download.
El Geneina, West Darfur – November 2004
A daily photo blog focusing on MSF field activities, with emphasis on the particularly creative, arresting and visually engaging images. See more...
