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Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
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The South Sudanese key strategic town of Malakal came under attack on February 18. The clashes between government and opposition forces forced thousands of people to flee to other locations or to the UN compound in the town.
South Sudan

"No news from Malakal"

South Sudan: "No news from Malakal" Project Update - 14 Apr 2014
 
Outreach worker Khen Rith conducts TB health education and explains the Active Case Finding screening process to over 55 villagers at Angkor Chea village, Cambodia.
Tuberculosis

Active Case Finding in Cambodia: Searching for TB one village at a time

With the current health system in Cambodia at its limit, MSF has trialled an active case finding project that targets high-risk groups for TB. Project Update - 14 Apr 2014
 
MSF fistula camp in Boguila, CAR: Exterior of main hospital in Boguila. 
Approximately two million women in Africa suffer from a fistula, which is a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum, through which urine or feces leak continuously. Fistulas can be caused by prolonged obstructed labor and childbirth or sexual violence in addition to lack of medical facilities. Women with fistulas are often outcasts from their communities because of the smell associated with their incontinence, and in some cases they are abandoned by their husbands. Chances for women to have their fistula repaired are slim, as many hospitals or health clinics do not have the proper instruments or knowledge and skills to carry out such a procedure.
Central African Republic

Thousands of people flee fighting in Boguila town

7,000 people flee the town, 40 women and children seek refuge in hospital Project Update - 12 Apr 2014
 
Epidemiologist Michel Van Herp explains to the population in Gbando what is Ebola and how to avoid transmission.

The Ebola epidemic confirmed by the Ministry of Health on March 22 is the first to affect Guinea. The priority of the teams on site is to identify patients with Ebola symptoms and isolate them, while providing high-quality care. In cooperation with the Ministry of Health, MSF created an isolation facility in Guéckédou and is setting up another in Macenta. Both towns are in the Forestière region of southern Guinea. Mobile teams are also evaluating the situation in Kissidougou and Nzérékoré and are monitoring bordering countries closely, particularly Sierra Leone and Liberia, where suspected cases have been reported.
Ebola and haemorrhagic fevers

MSF resumes activities in Ebola centre in southeast Guinea

MSF resumes activities in a treatment centre in southeast Guinea, after it was forced to suspend it’s work late last week following protests by a section of the local population. Press Release - 11 Apr 2014
 
National Reference Laboratory, Abovyan. Sputum culture is currently used to detect TB, together with chest X-rays, sputum smear microscopy and Mantoux test. However, the growth of TB bacteria in culture is the only method allowing determining complete drug-susceptibility.<br> *** Local Caption *** Treatment options for patients with drug-resistant TB remain far short of what is needed. Treatments are long (up to 2 years), toxic (serious side-effects) and expensive. Furthermore, the cure rate is only 50%.
Bedaquiline, one of two new TB drugs to be developed in 50 years, is as yet only available for compassionate use, i.e., patients for whom most antibiotics are not effective. MSF has been administering a new treatment including bedaquiline to around thirty patients in Armenia since April 2013. Although we can not draw any definitive conclusions (at this point), several patients have shown significant signs of improvement and we have not observed any side effects associated with bedaquiline until now.
But, while compassionate use of this new drug gives cause for optimism to patients who have lost hope, it is not the solution for treating the hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide suffering from DR-TB. New, shorter, less toxic and cheaper treatments including bedaquiline and delamanid, the other new TB drug, need to be developed.
Tuberculosis

Intensive-Phase Treatment Outcomes among Hospitalized Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Patients: Results from a Nationwide Cohort in Nigeria

Studies on Intensive-Phase Treatment Outcomes among Multidrug-Resistant TB Patients. Journal article - 10 Apr 2014
 
Las familias de presos requieren, por lo general, atención psicológica. Mujeres, madres o hijos acusan todos  la ausencia del familiar preso. En el caso de Adel,  que se puso en huelga de hambre, agravó la condición de la familia. 
Prisoners’ families usually need psychological attention. Women, mothers, fathers, children, they are all affected by the absence of the prisoner. Adel’s case, who went into hunger strike, worsened the condition of his family.
Palestine

Occupied Minds - Crossing a checkpoint

Part IV of Occupied Minds, a series of stories about MSF patients affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Voices from the Field - 10 Apr 2014
 
Kala Azar in Bihar, India. Sadar Hospital, Vaishali District.
In partnership with the State Health Society-Bihar, MSF has managed a Kala Azar diagnosis and treatment project in Vaishali District since 2007, and has treated more than 10,000 patients free-of-charge within government facilities. L-AmB (liposomal amphotericin B) has been used as a first line treatment. However, L-AmB is still very expensive and in order to investigate potential alternative treatments, MSF, in August 2012, partnered with the Bihar State Health Society and DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative) to further empirical research on safer and more effective treatments for Kala Azar in India. Kala azar is a disease endemic to Bihar.
India

Better detection, diagnosis and treatment needed for neglected complication of kala azar in Bihar

MSF is calling on the Bihar government and NVBDCP to recognise and treat Post Kala azar Dermal Leishmaniasis. Press Release - 10 Apr 2014
 
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South Sudan

80,000 South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia

Video: South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia Project Update - 10 Apr 2014
 
Pascal Piguet, Swiss log watsan in Guéckédou.
Guinea

Interview with MSF logistician in Gueckedou

Interivew with Pascal Piquet, MSF logistician in Gueckedou, on MSF response to the Ebola outbreak. Voices from the Field - 10 Apr 2014
 
Luetchor refugee camp.<br> MSF has set up an outpatient and inpatient medical facility with a capacity of 75 bed in Luetchor refugee camp, serving a population of approximately 40 000 south Sudanese refugees as of April 1st 2014.  The refugees have fled violence, persecutions and food shortage in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity in neighboring   South Sudan
Ethiopia

Urgent assistance needed for South Sudanese refugees

Ethiopia: assistance needed for South Sudanese refugees Press Release - 10 Apr 2014
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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