After vaccination campaign, hopes of a substantial reduction in meningitis A epidemics in Niger

In December 2010, MSF supported the roll-out of a new vaccine against meningitis as an alternative to solely emergency response. The first phase has been completed with optimistic results. Project Update - 6 Jan 2011

Tuberculosis

Meet the first MSF patient to have recovered from XDR-TB

While one in five patients under treatment for moderately resistant strains of the disease do not survive, patients with extensively resistant cases, if they can get treatment at all, usually must rely on less effective and more toxic medicines, with lower success rates. For these reasons and others, Xoliswa Armans is a remarkable patient. Project Update - 23 Dec 2010

South Sudan

Southern Sudan in grips of worst kala azar outbreak in eight years.

Epidemic compounds existing medical humanitarian crisis Press Release - 16 Dec 2010

Somalia

In a Somaliland camp, a triple blessing amidst ongoing hardship

“I thought my time had come too,” she recalls. “I said goodbye to everyone who visited me and asked them for forgiveness. I never thought that I would survive.”
MSF’s outreach team found Fardows while surveying the Shadaha camp for people in need of emergency medical attention. They took her to hospital, where she learned she was pregnant with triplets. Voices from the Field - 13 Dec 2010

HIV/AIDS

Denied funding puts HIV patients in low-income countries at risk of death

Several low-income countries, highly affected by HIV, risk being entirely or partly disqualified from the current funding round by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, warns the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins sans Frontières (MSF). Project Update - 8 Dec 2010

Chad

The challenge of logistics in Chad

Charlotte Stemmer worked in the Chad emergency nutrition projects from September to November, 2010
Voices from the Field - 7 Dec 2010

Malawi

Health workers, government and civil society at joint MOH and MSF conference address health professional gaps in Malawi

Like many countries in Africa, South Asia and Asia-Pacific, Malawi has been facing a critical shortage of healthcare workers, with an average ratio of two doctors for every 100,000 people. This low number of physicians, as well as nurses, in the health care system means that treating Malawi’s 920,000 people living with HIV, of whom 59% are women, is a massive challenge. Project Update - 6 Dec 2010

Global

Interview: Dr. Cathy Hewison discusses 'revolutionary' Meningitis vaccine

Médecins Sans Frontières teams are involved in rolling out a mass vaccination campaign against meningitis in Mali and Niger in Africa’s notorious meningitis belt.
Every year, MSF launches mass campaigns but this one is very different; the new vaccine is being employed as a preventive measure and not, as in the past, in response to an actual outbreak of the disease. This brings with it new challenges but many are hoping the new vaccine could help wipe out the devastating meningitis epidemics in the region. MSF is working closely to support the governments’ work in rolling this vaccine out which, in this initial phase, is also being launched in Burkina Faso. Voices from the Field - 6 Dec 2010

Burkina Faso

MSF to support roll-out of promising new vaccine for meningitis

“Thanks to an innovative way of doing research and development where the need for an affordable product was factored in from the very start, this vaccine costs only 40 US cents per dose” said Dr Tido von Schoen-Angerer, Director of MSF's Access Campaign. “But despite its low price, no donor has yet come forward to offer financial support to implement the vaccine beyond the first three countries. Press Release - 6 Dec 2010

Global

Licensing deal threatens cheap pharmaceuticals

Stella is four, and lives on HIV drugs. Next week, the EU may cut her supply. Project Update - 1 Dec 2010

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

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We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

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