Effects of the native herbs that parents gave to their children

Marlene Hay is a nurse specialising in paediatrics from Kilsyth in Scotland. In January she returned from Sierra Leone in West Africa, where she worked for six months in a rural hospital with no running water and a generator that ran for only two hours a day. She reports back on her challenging work and the battle with the cockroaches in the compound toilet! Project Update - 1 Jan 2004

Iran

Specialised equipment and teams sent to treat post-quake 'crush' victims

MSF, together with the International Society of Nephrology (ISN), is providing medical care for "crush syndrome" earthquake victims. A team of five people is already on the ground and a flight carrying six additional dialysis machines left Ostende Tuesday evening. Project Update - 30 Dec 2003

Somalia

Somali MSF worker killed

MSF Somali national worker, Bashir Yusuf Ali, was tragically killed. Project Update - 29 Dec 2003

South Sudan

Tuberculosis treatment in complex emergencies

Treating tuberculosis in complex emergencies is an under-recognised priority. Although MSF's programme is small, it offers treatment to people who have previously been denied access to health care. Clearly, new ideas and strategies, based on core principles of tuberculosis treatment, need to be adapted to ensure that people living in unique and difficult settings, such as Sudan, have access to this life-saving care. Project Update - 29 Dec 2003

Nepal

Crisis in Nepal: Destruction before construction

For the last few months, Jono Lineen has been trying to set up one of MSF's health programmes in western Nepal, where the government and Maoist rebels are fighting a brutal civil war. Below he describes his struggle to negotiate with young revolutionaries bent on restructuring society. Project Update - 29 Dec 2003

Malaria

Amid the death, new hope

From education to vaccines, a drive to halt malaria takes off. This report concludes a Boston Globe series, begun on Jan. 26, on world health challenges and the solutions that are within reach. Project Update - 28 Dec 2003

HIV/AIDS

Offering lessons for treating HIV/AIDS to Pepfar

MSF statement on Pepfar: Testimony submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services for the meeting of the International Subcommittee of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS Project Update - 16 Dec 2003

South Africa

We Are Alive - Mandela inaugurates ART site near his birthplace

"Siyaphila La will set an example for other rural HIV treatment sites that will be established in the Eastern Cape and across the country," said Mandela. Project Update - 15 Dec 2003

South Sudan

Bicycle teams are key in controlling malaria outbreak in South Sudan

Floods have brought a five-fold increase in cases and the bicycle teams provide life-saving treatment to stranded areas. Of the over 70,000 people who have been treated so far, nearly 50,000 have been cared for by these teams. Project Update - 12 Dec 2003

South Africa

Window of opportunity opens for South Africa to access affordable antiretrovirals

The agreement reached between the Treatment Action Campaign and two pharmaceutical companies covers both public and private sectors and - importantly - also allows generics produced in South Africa to be exported to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. Project Update - 12 Dec 2003

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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