"It is painful to live in days when children are killed and wounded by the bombing of a busy public market. Our only relief is to keep supporting the Syrian medics to save as many lives, limbs and futures as possible." Press Release - 23 Mar 2018

Farmin, aged 15, has been a refugee in Bangladesh since September. Her mother Nour al-Nahar died in the camp at the age of 35, in December 2017. The mother had been suffering from severe stomach pain for nearly two months. She is survived by five sons and two daughters. Her husband — Farmin’s father — was arrested in Myanmar in September. The family have not heard from him since.

International Women's Day

Caring for displaced women

For International Women’s Day 2018, against the backdrop of record levels of displacement, MSF is highlighting how health needs are exacerbated for women and girls on the move. Press Release - 6 Mar 2018

Nigeria

MSF suspends medical activities in Rann

It is still unclear how many people were killed and injured but before leaving, MSF medical staff treated 9 wounded patients. Press Release - 2 Mar 2018

Aidana, 20 years old, in her bed at the Kara-Suu hospital. Aidana started first line treatment for TB in in 2014. After two months, she stopped the medication and went to Russia with her husband. In July 2017, after several months of illness, she came back to Kyrgyzstan and was diagnosed with MDR-TB. Kara-Suu.

Kyrgyzstan

Experts to tackle the deadly threat of TB in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Symposium

“To make TB a disease of the past, we have a long way to go” Press Release - 1 Mar 2018

Syria

Doctors and nurses collapsing as medical response in East Ghouta reaches its limits

MSF calls for an immediate ceasefire to enable the basic human act of helping the sick and wounded. Press Release - 24 Feb 2018

The last two functional ambulances in Al-Marj neighbourhood (in the East Ghouta besieged area near Damascus) were destroyed beyond repair in an aerial bomb attack on Monday 05 December 2016. They were parked in the hospital’s warehouse/garage, very near to the makeshift hospital’s location. Two hospital cars, used to transporting supplies and medical personnel, were also destroyed in the blast. The lack of ambulances will have an impact on the ability to quickly treat wounded when there is bombing or shelling in the area, but above all it will affect the capacity to refer the most sick patients to larger secondary referral hospitals. The makeshift hospital in Al-Marj is not equipped for complex or long-term in-patient hospital care, and this could have a big impact on the ability to refer patients for appropriate secondary care.

Syria

Extraordinary mass-casualty influxes in East Ghouta as hospitals run short of life-saving medicines

“We make a plea to those in and around East Ghouta with medical supplies to urgently grant access to those stocks to the medics in East Ghouta – lives depend on it.” Press Release - 21 Feb 2018

Cholera Vaccination at St Joseph Churh, one of the 15 sites of vaccination in Kanyama districts.

Zambia

Encouraging new results further demonstrate effectiveness of the single dose oral cholera vaccine

“While the availability of vaccines has improved in recent years, the number is still far from being sufficient to tackle the large-scale outbreaks we are currently seeing" Press Release - 9 Feb 2018

Pneumonia

MSF challenges Pfizer’s monopoly on lifesaving pneumonia vaccine in South Korea

“In our work, we see many children with life-threatening respiratory infections; many deaths could be prevented if more kids were vaccinated with PCV.” Press Release - 6 Feb 2018

In a nightmarish day on the Mediterranean yesterday, 99 survivors from a sinking rubber boat were rescued by the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS MEDITERRANEE, but an unknown number of men, women and children are missing, presumed drowned. Two women are confirmed dead.

“The scene was devastating, with many urgent medical cases in quick succession. They just kept coming, one after another, unconscious and not breathing,” said MSF nurse Aoife Ni Mhurchu.

Dozens of people were already in the sea when the Aquarius arrived at the scene around 9.30am, and the rubber boat was already deflating. All floating devices were deployed from Aquarius, rafts were launched and the rescue team started pulling people from the sea.

The MSF medical team on board the Aquarius resuscitated six young children, and one woman. Despite their best efforts they were unable to resuscitate two other women who had drowned.

“It is absolutely heartbreaking. These women were mothers. We’re now trying to care for their very young children who remain onboard Aquarius” said Ni Mhurchu.

All medical emergencies together with their caretakers were evacuated from Aquarius by an Italian Navy Helicopter to Sfax, Tunisia – a total of sixteen people. This included all six resuscitated children and several women with water on their lungs. The MSF medical team also treated many severe fuel burns, as well as over a dozen mild to moderate hypothermia cases. Many survivors were disorientated and confused as a result of inhaling fuel which had leaked into the rubber boat.

Mediterranean migration

99 survivors rescued from sinking dinghy but many presumed drowned

99 survivors from a sinking rubber boat were rescued by the Aquarius, a search and rescue vessel run by MSF and SOS MEDITERRANEE, but an unknown number of men, women and children are missing, presumed drowned. Press Release - 28 Jan 2018

Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

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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Two airstrikes cause a mass-casualty influx in a MSF supported hospital