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Covid-19 second wave in Mumbai, India.
We fill gaps in India’s health system and provide specific medical care to neglected people who would otherwise struggle to access it.

We have a number of long-standing projects in India, which we run in conjunction with the state authorities to address specific healthcare needs and emerging public health concerns.

We also run mobile clinics in remote areas of the country, where even preventable, treatable conditions such as malaria can assume life-threatening proportions.

Key activities

Our activities in 2023 in India

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2023.

MSF in India in 2023 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) runs programmes in India aimed at improving care for tuberculosis (TB), HIV and other infectious diseases, and access to essential healthcare for remote communities.
India IAR map 2023

In Mumbai, MSF’s clinic treats complex cases of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), including extensively drug-resistant forms of the disease, with innovative drug combinations. For children under five, we implement all-oral regimens. The clinic also supports some palliative care patients when all available treatment options have failed.

In addition, we work with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to reduce high TB incidence and death rates in the area. Our team co-manages a DR-TB centre in a public hospital, and we support diagnosis, treatment, counselling, contact tracing and health promotion.

In Manipur, our project caring for people living with HIV, TB, DR-TB and hepatitis C was severely disrupted when conflict broke out in May, effectively dividing the state into two ethnically separate areas. At the end of the year, as this continued to pose significant challenges to the provision of care and the medical supply chain, our teams were monitoring needs and exploring possible short-term emergency interventions.

In Mizoram state, northeast India, we offered basic healthcare and specialist referrals for refugees from Chin state, Myanmar, at our clinic in Zawkhatar. In displacement camps in the southern-border districts of Champhai, Siaha and Lawngtlai, we provided newly arrived families with relief items such as tents, and cooking and hygiene kits, as well as access to water and sanitation facilities, and medical referrals.

We closed our sexual violence treatment centre in the capital, New Delhi, in November, but will continue to work with other organisations to call for improved access to care for victims and survivors in India. This involves addressing the existing legal and medical barriers that prevent people from seeking urgent treatment.

MSF’s other projects in India include the provision of comprehensive care to people living with advanced HIV in Bihar, essential healthcare via mobile clinics in remote areas of Chhattisgarh, and mental health services in Jammu and Kashmir.

 

In 2023
Kala azar-HIV co-infection in Bihar, Animated explainer | ENG
video

Explaining kala azar-HIV co-infection

Have you heard of kala azar?

Kala azar is a neglected but potentially fatal tropical disease. India accounts for 30 per cent of cases worldwide.

This short animation explains what kala azar is, how it relates to HIV, and what we are doing in response.

Since 80 per cent of India's kala azar cases are reported in Bihar, we set up a programme there in 2007.

People living with HIV are particularly vulnerable to kala azar, so since 2016 we have been focusing on treating patients co-infected with the two diseases, in partnership with the Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Bihar.

 
Kala Azar in Bihar, India. Sadar Hospital, Vaishali District.
India

Better detection, diagnosis and treatment needed for neglected complication of kala azar in Bihar

Press Release 10 Apr 2014
 
Kala Azar in Bihar, India
India

Access to kala azar treatment in public healthcare system needs to be scaled up

Project Update 28 Mar 2014
 
Journal article

Directly-Observed and Self-Administered Tuberculosis Treatment in a Chronic, Low-Intensity Conflict Setting in India

20 Mar 2014
Journal article
 
Malnutrition in Bihar, India
India

A step closer to effective treatment of severe acute malnutrition in Bihar

Press Release 3 Mar 2014
 
Journal article

Infection control in households of drug-resistant tuberculosis patients co-infected with HIV in Mumbai, India

1 Mar 2014
Journal article
 
Journal article

Five-Year Field Results and Long-Term Effectiveness of 20 mg/kg Liposomal Amphotericin B (Ambisome) for Visceral Leishmaniasis in Bihar, India

2 Jan 2014
Journal article

Contact us

Treating kala azar-HIV co-infection in Bihar, India