Skip to main content
Sierra Leone - Barriers to accessing health care 2022
Without adequate care, a child’s earliest years can be the most deadly in many low-resource countries.

The health risks for children are more severe the younger the child: as a global average, 85 per cent of childhood deaths occur in children less than five years old, but 47 per cent of those deaths are in the newborn period – the first 28 days of life.

Children under 15 years of age make up more than 60 per cent of patients in our projects, and many arrive in a critical condition or in the late stages of an illness. They are sick because they have not been adequately protected from disease or received appropriate treatment when they needed it. There are still many gaps in appropriate drugs, tools, protocols and staff for treating these young patients.

These are all factors why children under five in low- and middle-income countries continue to lose their lives to infectious diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, and why newborns are failing to survive their first few days. This is also why older children face poor health long-term, if not death, due to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and epilepsy.

Quick facts about child health

Katiola program: Saving mothers and children’s life in Cote d’Ivoire

MSF Paediatric Days

paediatrics.msf.org

Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academics to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field. Paediatric Days focuses on paediatrics because in humanitarian settings, children are the most vulnerable group, with the highest risk of disease and mortality. Visit the Paediatric Days website to learn more.

Visit MSF Paediatric Days website
 
Somalia

Increasing numbers, unchanging needs

Project Update 20 Aug 2007
 
Sierra Leone

MSF reduces its presence in Sierra Leone

Project Update 16 Aug 2007
 
Chad

Chad's rainy season, with ongoing violence and displacement, brings the health situation closer to emergency levels

Project Update 30 Jul 2007
 
Somalia

New wave of violence prevents people from getting medical assistance

Project Update 26 Jul 2007
 
Democratic Republic of Congo

A delayed arrival in Katanga

Voices from the Field 23 May 2007
 
Chad

Displaced people forced to flee again in region gripped by sharp rise in violence

Voices from the Field 22 Nov 2006
 
South Africa

Mass measles vaccinations are effective at early signs of outbreak

Press Release 16 Nov 2006
 
Sudan

A crisis of human suffering

Project Update 14 Nov 2006
 
South Sudan

MSF provides assistance to 50,000 newly displaced in south Darfur

Project Update 12 Nov 2006
Advanced HIV management in Homa Bay
Medical Resource

MSF Field Research

We produce important research based on our field experience. So far, we have published articles in over 100 peer-reviewed journals. These articles have often changed clinical practice and have been used for humanitarian advocacy. All of these articles can be found on our dedicated Field Research website.

Visit site