An open letter from MSF clinical psychiatrist Dr Alessandro Barberio, Moria camp, Lesbos, Greece on the desperate circumstances for refugees in the camp and the mental health emergency Open Letter - 17 Sep 2018

Thousands of people seeking safety after fleeing countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, and Congo continue to risk their lives to reach Europe. Those who try to arrive via Turkey and the Aegean Sea have been trapped for an indefinite period of time on islands in Greece as part of the EU/Turkey deal and its deterrence and containment approach.
In Moria refugee camp, on Lesbos island, there are currently more than 7,500 people in a camp made for a maximum of 2,500. With the camp so full, refugees are now staying in an informal extension of the camp known as Olive Grove. The awful conditions at Moria camp/Olive Grove and arbitrary administrative situations have had a dramatic impact on their health and in particular their mental health.
Médecins Sans Frontières teams provide medical and mental health support outside Moria camp and run a clinic for severe mental health cases in Mytilene, the capital of the island.

Greece

Self-harm and attempted suicides increasing for child refugees in Lesbos

MSF teams seeing increasing levels of suicide attempts and self-harm among child refugees on Lesbos, urge Greece and the EU to evacuate vulnerable refugees.

Press Release - 17 Sep 2018

Chechnya, Russian Federation. T., 31, a mother of two, is an XDR TB patient. She doesn’t tolerate the treatment well, but is committed to complete it for the sake of her 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son. ‘When I heard the treatment was two years - I thought then: two years, no, I cannot stand it. And now just seven months left, time passes. I just know that I have to take the medicines, so I do it. I do not tolerate them well. When I was hospitalised my boy was three months old. Then I found out how many people are ill with TB, and I learned how good these people in the hospital were. At first it was difficult, then my strength started to come back. We all had a common misfortune there, and everyone understood each other well’.

Tuberculosis

Open Letter to J&J: Calling for affordable access to critical TB drug bedaquiline

MSF sent an open letter to Johnson & Johnson urging the pharmaceutical corporation to take action so that countries can access an affordable and sustainable supply of the critical drug bedaquiline, used to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). msfaccess.org - 17 Sep 2018

Hepatitis C

MSF response to ruling in Gilead sofosbuvir patent hearing at European Patent Office

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is gravely disappointed with the European Patent Office’s decision today to uphold US pharmaceutical corporation Gilead Sciences’ patent related to the key hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir. Access Campaign - 14 Sep 2018

$Complex fractures, resulting from road accidents or bullet or knives wound, usually require at least a cast, often an external fixator, and sometimes amputation.$

Central African Republic

Restoring body and mind through physiotherapy

Photo Story - 14 Sep 2018

DRC Ebola outbreaks

With a new Ebola outbreak, we knew we had to act fast

An experienced nurse, Patient Muhindo Kamavu was one of four MSF nurses who were the first on the ground, alongside the Ministry of Health, to respond to the Ebola outbreak declared on 1 August in Mangina, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Voices from the Field - 13 Sep 2018

MSF medics on Aquarius continue painstaking daily dressing changes for more than 20 patients who have suffered serious fuel burns. If not treated properly, these burns will go on to cause chronic pain, disfigurement, and horrific scars.

Mediterranean migration

The Aquarius Aquarium

As an MSF nurse, François-Xavier Daoudal returned at the end of June after spending three weeks on board the Aquarius. During his time on the ship, 629 people were rescued. However, immediately after the rescue operation, the Italian and Maltese authorities refused the ship permission to dock, triggering a huge political and media furor. The Aquarius was left stranded at sea for several days before being able to transfer some of the rescued migrants to two Italian navy ships. All passengers were finally disembarked in Spanish port Valencia. What can be drawn from such an experience? Read on to see what F-X had to say during an interview on the political implications, life on board the Aquarius and the issue of people smuggling. He also shared with us what the migrants themselves had to say. msf-crash.org - 13 Sep 2018

Hepatitis C

MSF calls for end to Gilead’s hepatitis C drug monopoly

This week in Munich, the European Patent Office is hearing a legal challenge filed by groups in 17 countries in March 2017, against an unmerited patent that allows US pharmaceutical corporation Gilead Sciences to charge exorbitant prices in Europe for the key hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir Press Release - 11 Sep 2018

Children in detention centre.
On September 2nd, 276 people were brought by the Libyan coast guard to Khoms (120 km east of Tripoli) - among them 181 men, 42 women and 24 children including 2 babies less than 12 months old. They were then transferred to detention center where MSF works. Reportedly, they were in two rubber coats, one stopped due to engine failure, while the other boat continued to navigate for several hours before deflating and sinking. Survivors told MSF teams that over a hundred people died in the shipwreck.

Mediterranean migration

Refugee Libya shipwreck survivors condemned to drown at sea or face arbitrary detention

More than a hundred people have reportedly died in a shipwreck off the Libyan coast one week ago. MSF has been providing urgent medical assistance following disembarkation. Project Update - 10 Sep 2018

A team that has just finished setting up a tent in the high-risk zone in the Ebola treatment centre, getting out of their personal protective equipment (PPE). It’s hard work, and harder still in such attire.

Une équipe retire son équipement de protection individuelle après avoir monté une tente dans la zone de haut risque dans le centre de traitement Ébola. C’est un travail difficile a faire avec l’équipement de protection.

DRC Ebola outbreaks

North Kivu: MSF treats 65 Ebola patients in first month

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated 65 patients confirmed to be diagnosed with Ebola in the first month of intervention in the latest Ebola outbreak, in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Project Update - 7 Sep 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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Moria is in a state of emergency