Treating war wounded in a city under siege

One team that MSF had set up in West Point has transformed itself into a wheelbarrow ambulance brigade. They have taken it upon themselves to bring severely injured patients to the MSF hospital in Mamba Point by stretcher and wheelbarrow. On their return trips to West Point, they carry medical supplies, food and drinking water that MSF sends to help support the Catholic Mission Clinic there. Project Update - 30 Jul 2003

Liberia

Monrovia casebook: "I feel safer when I hear the gunshots"

Dr Andrew Schechtman of MSF has been witnessing the tragedy unfold in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. A pregnant woman arrives and the team struggles to save the unborn baby. Another woman, a victim of rape, reaffirms the state of lawlessness in Monrovia.
Project Update - 30 Jul 2003

Angola

MSF assists in repatriation of 440,000 Moxico refugees after 27 years of civil war in Angola

"Not only does the poor quality of the transport routes hamper our work - especially in rainy season - but there are 9-12 million landmines still littering Angola. That is more than one landmine per person. And as a result, access to the people most in need is extremely limited," said an MSF spokesperson. Project Update - 22 Jul 2003

Turkmenistan

Dashoguzd: Little optimism in Turkmenistan's TB wards

Masks are hurriedly being handed out at the doorway of the tuberculosis sanatorium. Down the long dark corridor you can see the silhouettes of patients shuffling back to their rooms; ladies with mops and buckets of foul-smelling disinfectant appear out of nowhere and we are ushered in. Into the world of the category two failure and the chronic tuberculosis patient, the category four: the suspect "drug-resistants". Crammed into a room, the rusty iron beds touch one another. Project Update - 9 Jul 2003

Democratic Republic of Congo

War or health: Humanitarian crisis worsens in war-torn Congo

In some villages the people are living in the most basic conditions and extremely emaciated people are found, locally they are called the 'living skeletons'. This boy is 18 years old and is suffering from severe malnutrition. Project Update - 9 Jul 2003

Uzbekistan

To treat or not to treat? Implementation of DOTS in Central Asia

Walk through one of the overcrowded tuberculosis hospitals in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, and the reality of the devastation wreaked by this global pandemic is all too apparent. Project Update - 9 Jul 2003

Uzbekistan

Responding to an environmental health disaster in Central Asia

Responding to an environmental health disaster in Central Asia. Project Update - 9 Jul 2003

DNDi

Aid agency launches latest initiative to tackle diseases in the developing world

Public health experts estimate that just 10% of worldwide funding of pharmaceutical research goes into infectious diseases that affect the world's poor people. Project Update - 5 Jul 2003

Chagas disease

Health bodies launch research push to find cures for unfashionable diseases

The World Health Organization estimates that between 300,000 and 500,000 people in 36 African countries suffer from sleeping sickness, which is carried by the tsetse fly. About 80 percent die before being diagnosed as the parasites enter their brains. Chagas Disease is a similar condition, carried by blood-sucking insects, that affects primarily Latin America. Project Update - 4 Jul 2003

DNDi

Neglected diseases kill poor

Diseases that kill millions of poor people every year are ignored by Western firms because drugs to combat them make no money, a new research body said as it was launched on Thursday. Project Update - 4 Jul 2003

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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