Countries obstructing COVID-19 patent waiver must allow negotiations to start

A small number of wealthy countries continue to block a waiver on intellectual property rights on COVID-19 tools, preventing wide-scale production that could save more lives. Press Release - 9 Mar 2021

30-year old Aster* is 8 months pregnant and has come for a consultation at MSF’s clinic at Primary School IDP camp. Two months ago, she fled Adi Heseray with her husband and two children. They were farmers. She says her house was burned down and all their belongings were taken.
“It was difficult to walk all the way to Shire, being pregnant and having a 6 and 4 year old. We live with the host community in Shire. They gave us a place to sleep and share their food with us. We did not know the family before. It is very difficult to be pregnant in this situation. Before the fighting, I often visited a doctor but since then I have received no medical checkup. In my town, all the drugs were taken, the health center was destroyed. I hope I will get medical assistance for this birth. My two other children were born at the hospital. We are very depressed. I have not received any food aid. We are getting some food from the people we are staying with. Sometimes, I beg. If they don’t give me anything, we sometimes sleep without food. It is difficult to be dependent. Before, I could do whatever I wanted. Now I feel stressed. I have nothing to eat for my children. It makes me empty inside. Before, the children had regular meals. Now they sometimes sleep without eating.”

Ethiopia

People in Tigray “are suffering from a lack of medical care”

Following violence, the crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia continues, with people in camps for the displaced - and those in rural areas - lacking food and access to medical care. Project Update - 5 Mar 2021

Illustration of women from various contexts and lived experiences, who all might seek self-care.

Women's health

Practicing self-care: empowering women to manage their own health

For International Women's Day, we explain how we empower women and girls around the world to practice self-care, by taking charge and managing their own health. Project Update - 4 Mar 2021

Mozambique

Displaced by violence, people in Cabo Delgado arrive in more mental than physical pain

Years of conflict and continual attacks on villages in Cabo Delgado province, in northeastern Mozambique, take a severe mental health toll on people, who are forced to flee. Interview - 4 Mar 2021

Syria

A decade of war in Syria: 10 years of increasing humanitarian needs

War has now been raging in Syria for 10 years. We outline the increasing humanitarian needs of millions of Syrians over the course of the war and our efforts to respond to them. Project Update - 3 Mar 2021

Syria

MSF denounces unsafe environment in Al-Hol camp in wake of staff killing

The security and safety situation in Al-Hol camp, northeastern Syria, has deteriorated, with more than 30 people - including MSF staff - killed since January. Press Release - 2 Mar 2021

DRC Ebola outbreaks

MSF responds in North Kivu to twelfth Ebola outbreak in DRC

Following a new outbreak of Ebola in DRC - the country's twelfth - MSF teams are responding in communities in North Kivu province, the site of the newest outbreak. Project Update - 25 Feb 2021

Violent clashes between gang members took place on February 23 around a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) burn care hospital in the neighborhood of Drouillard, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, forcing the staff to transfer 21 hospital patients to MSF's trauma hospital in the city's Tabarre neighborhood. MSF staff are pictured here transporting a burns patient upon arrival at MSF's Tabarre hospital on February 24.

Haiti

Staff forced to transfer burns hospital patients following Port-au-Prince violence

Violent clashes around the MSF burns centre hospital in Drouillard, a neighbourhood of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, have forced staff to transfer patients for their safety. Project Update - 25 Feb 2021

Central African Republic

People, medical facilities hit during violence in southern CAR

Post-election violence in Central African Republic is continuing to have an impact on people, this time in the southern city of Bambari, when people and medical facilities were hit with bullets. Project Update - 22 Feb 2021

MSF has offered mental health consultations in the city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, since 1996. In Hebron, Palestinian civilians suffer frequent abuses such as the demolition of their homes, arbitrary detention, and systematic attacks by Israeli settlers with the tacit support of the Israeli army. As well as experiencing physical injury men, women, and particularly children suffer from significant long-term mental health impacts of these routine occurrences.

The effects of the occupation of Palestinian territory are far-reaching and leave very few people untouched, with children in particular vulnerable to long-term mental health issues as a result of witnessing or suffering traumatic events. Between February and July 2019, MSF reached 8145 people with mental health services, of whom more than 60% were children.

Palestine

“In Israel, you’re 60 times more likely to have a COVID vaccine than in Palestine”

Matthias Kennes, an MSF medical adviser in the West Bank, Palestine, writes of the searing inequalities he's witnessing on COVID-19 vaccination between the occupied territory and Israel. Opinion - 22 Feb 2021

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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