Skip to main content
Opening of a new Hepatitis C service in Yerevan
War in Gaza:: find out how we're responding
Learn more
In Armenia, MSF first worked in the country in 1988 to respond to medical needs following the Spitak earthquake, before treating people with drug-resistant tuberculosis with new, effective drugs.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, we provided medical and therapeutic care to children with a physical and/or mental disability, in a special education complex in Yerevan; this project was closed in 2004. 

More recently, we focused on implementing new regimens for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Armenia, which has one of the highest rates of the disease in the world. We had been working with the national tuberculosis programme in Yerevan, the capital, since 2005, before implementing our own programme to treat drug-resistant TB in 2015. This programme, which also included medical research, saw patients treated with bedaquiline and delamanid, two of the newest drugs to treat TB; Armenia was one of the first countries in the world to authorise their use.

We also work in Nagorno-Karabakh, a self-proclaimed republic internationally recognised as belonging to Azerbaijan, but which is home to many ethnic Armenians. Our activities there included the provision of medical equipment and support during the Nagorno-Karabakh war (1992–1997), and a TB project (1997-2003). In 2022 we also we supported mental health services to people in public health facilities by conducting training and monitoring patient care.

Our activities in Armenia in 2023

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2023.

MSF in Armenia in 2023 In 2023, Médecins Sans Frontières teams in Armenia provided mental health care to people fleeing the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, and opened a hepatitis C project near the capital, Yerevan.
Armenia IAR map 2023

From December 2022 to September 2023, Azerbaijan closed the main road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, known as the Lachin Corridor, restricting humanitarian access and the transport of medical supplies, food and fuel. We continued our efforts to provide both face-to-face and remote mental health services to people blocked in Nagorno-Karabakh during this period.

On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched an attack on various areas in Nagorno-Karabakh. Although the region is internationally recognised as belonging to Azerbaijan, it has traditionally been home to many ethnic Armenians. After a ceasefire was reached 24 hours later, the Lachin Corridor was reopened, and over 100,000 people crossed into the Armenian border region of Goris. Our emergency medical team immediately began providing psychological first aid and mental health care to people arriving at the main registration point in Goris.

As displaced people were gradually transported to various regions of Armenia for resettlement, we adapted our activities, sending a mobile unit that visited several sites each day to follow up on patients in need of psychological care. In Kotayk and Ararat regions, we offered mental health services via mobile clinics and provided displaced families with essential items, including walking sticks and wheelchairs, in 48 locations.

In May, we opened a project to support testing and treatment for hepatitis C at Archakuniat polyclinic, near Yerevan, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and local municipalities. The project focuses especially on people in prisons who are particularly vulnerable to hepatitis C infection, with the aim to reduce infections and improve health outcomes for patients diagnosed with the disease.

 

in 2023
 
Armenia

MSF launches day center for mental health In Tchambarak

Press Release 20 Feb 2004
 
Armenia

Sex-health clinic opens in local market district

Project Update 14 Aug 2002
 
Armenia

MSF in the Commonwealth of Independent States

Project Update 6 Jun 2001