© Julie Remy

© Zethu Mlobeli /MSF

Lesotho is the poorest, high HIV -prevalence country in the world, with an estimated 280,000 people living with HIV /AIDS. More than 10,000 people have tuberculosis (TB) and 76 per cent of them are HIV positive. In 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) completed a pilot project in collaboration with national health authorities that provided integrated HIV and TB care in local health centres.

© Julie Remy

After 14 years of civil war ended in 2003, Liberia’s government embarked on the enormous task of rebuilding the country’s health systems. In 2010, after 20 years of emergency healthcare provision in Liberia, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) closed its final two hospitals and the Ministry of Health took over responsibility for the services that MSF had been providing.

© Marit Helgerud / MSF

In 2010, Malawi experienced its worst outbreak of measles since 1997: 105,000 cases and 251 deaths were reported. Between April and August Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams helped authorities deal with the outbreak, conducting a vaccination campaign in nine districts among 3.3 million children aged between six months and 15 years.

© Antoine Prus / MSF

Mali has seen a reduction in humanitarian assistance because of the presence of groups linked to AQI M (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) in the country. Health needs are significant, and child mortality rates are high. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) focuses on child healthcare in the regions of Sikasso and Koulikoro.

© Anna Surinyach /MSF

Morocco is a country of both transit and forced stay for many migrants and asylum seekers from sub-Saharan Africa. A growing number of people are finding themselves stuck in the country, unable either to continue their journeys to Europe or return home.

© Niklas Bergstrand

Despite Mozambique’s recent economic growth many people in the country remain dependent on international aid. Of the 1.6 million people living with HIV, about 430,000 are in urgent need of life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

© Yann Libessart / MSF

Nutritional crises are a chronic problem in Niger, but a particularly poor harvest in 2009 made the 2010 crisis far worse. Global acute malnutrition rates among children passed the emergency threshold of 15 per cent, with more than three per cent of under-fives suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

© Silvia Fern�ndez /MSF

Ethnic and religious tensions flared again both in the north and the south of Nigeria in 2010. Health services continued to suffer from a lack of resources.

© Myriam Loiseau / MSF

At the end of 2009, tens of thousands of people crossed the Ubangi River to the Republic of the Congo, seeking refuge from fighting in Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

© Kenneth M Tong /MSF

An estimated 5.7 million people are living with HIV in South Africa, which makes up approximately 17 per cent of the world’s HIV population, according to the World Health Organization.

© Krisanne Johnson

Swaziland is facing a health emergency of immense proportions. According to the World Health Organization, HIV prevalence is the highest in the world, at 25.9 per cent among adults aged 15 to 49, and there are more than 1,250 cases of tuberculosis (TB) per 100,000 people.

© Brendan Bannon

Security has improved in northern Uganda since peace talks began between the government and rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army in 2006. An estimated 95 per cent of the 1.6 million people who had been displaced by fighting have returned home.

© Robin Meldrum /MSF

The government of Zambia is providing free antiretroviral treatment to patients with HIV , but people living in rural areas still struggle to find care, as the shortfall in skilled health workers hits the countryside hardest.

© Jessica Dimmock/VII Network

Malnutrition is a chronic problem in Burkina Faso, but hits particularly hard in the period between the two annual harvests, known as the “hunger gap”.

© Martina Bacigalupo

Although Burundi has a policy of free healthcare for children and pregnant women, access to care is limited, primarily because of a shortage of staff. This particularly affects women. According to the World Health Organization, 4,000 women die in childbirth and approximately 1,000 women develop an obstetric fistula every year.

© Marcell Nimfuehr /MSF

A pilot HIV /AIDS project in Cameroon is working to switch patients who have developed resistance to their first-line antiretroviral (ARV) treatment regimen to second-line treatment.

© Sarah Elliott for MSF

The Central African Republic has suffered armed conflict between rebel groups and the government for the past five years. People face enormous difficulties in accessing healthcare.

© MSF

In 2010, the heaviest rains for 40 years destroyed crops, flooded wells and cut off entire villages in Chad. These floods followed a long drought in 2009, which had already resulted in a significant drop in farm production.

© Robin Meldrum

In the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), civilians have borne the brunt of more than a decade of violent conflict. Villages have been pillaged and destroyed, armed men have forced people to flee, and rape has been used as a tool of war.

© Marcus Bleasdale/VII

Drought, rising food prices and increased numbers of migrants passing through the country have had a profound impact on Djibouti. Levels of malnutrition exceeded emergency thresholds in a number of locations in 2010. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has concentrated its efforts on reducing malnutrition among children in the slums of Djibouti City.

© Julie R�my

In 2010, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) helped to meet health needs in four regions: Somali, Oromia, Amhara and Gambella.

© Julien Rey/MSF

There are 1.5 million people living with HIV /AID S in Kenya, and Médecins Sans Frontières’s (MSF) work in the country continues with a strong focus on HIV care. Teams are also providing relief and healthcare to hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees living in camps around the town of Dadaab.

© Juan Carlos Tomasi

In April 2010, the government of Sierra Leone introduced a policy of free healthcare for children under five and for pregnant and breastfeeding women. But fewer than 200 doctors are employed by Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health to serve a population estimated at more than 5.8 million.

© Siegfried Modola

The security situation in Somalia deteriorated further in 2010 and while needs have grown, basic medical services continue to dwindle. Despite a number of incidents directly affecting its staff in recent years, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is still working in the country.

© Joseph Thomas Noriega

Medical needs among the people of Sudan remain significant, with insecurity and administrative constraints hampering efforts to reach the most vulnerable. In the south, access to healthcare is particularly poor. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) responded to several medical emergencies in 2010, including the biggest kala azar outbreak in the country in eight years, as well as treating victims of violence in Darfur.

© Kenneth M Tong

After years of political and economic crisis, the situation in Zimbabwe has stabilised. However, the HIV /AID S epidemic and outbreaks of disease continue to overwhelm the weakened healthcare system.