Skip to main content
Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
Learn more
8000 Results
 
msf-placeholder
Meningitis

How meningitis kills

The meningococcus resides in the nose or throat of health carriers - people who do not themselves fall sick because they have a measure of natural or acquired immunity. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Diarrhoeal disease

How diarrhoea kills

Diarrhoea causes a person to lose both water and electrolytes. Electrolytes are the salts such as sodium and potassium which are essential to the functioning of every cell in the body. If vomiting accompanies the diarrhoea then these losses are accelerated. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Meningitis

How MSF teams treat meningitis patients

Meningitis should be diagnosed by a microscope examination of fluid taken from a patient during a lumbar puncture, which means inserting a needle into the spinal canal low on the back. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Pneumonia

How pneumonia kills

Often pneumonia starts as a simple cold which goes down onto the chest. There, the virus causes inflammation of the lung tissue, and this allows any bacteria that are there to get past the local immune defences and set up a secondary infection. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Pneumonia

How MSF teams treat pneumonia patients

MSF nurses teach the mothers how to perform simple chest physiotherapy on their children. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Tuberculosis

How TB kills

It is estimated that up to one third of the world's population may be infected with the tubercule bacillus. Most of these people, however, do not have active TB. Their infection is latent, and may remain so for their whole life, not causing any symptoms. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Cholera

How cholera kills

The germ Vibrio cholerae is excreted by a sufferer in the stools and vomit. It can then be spread directly to other people if they touch the patient and then fail to wash their hands before eating. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Cholera

How MSF teams treat cholera patients

Cholera is eminently treatable. The main pathological process it causes is dehydration - thus the treatment we use is simply to replace all the fluid being lost. MSF treats many patients using oral rehydration solution, called ORS. This is a mixture of glucose and electrolytes (such as sodium and potassium) that comes in sachets. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Tuberculosis

How MSF teams treat TB patients

TB is difficult to treat. There is no single antibiotic that is capable of killing all the tubercle bacilli in a person's body. Apart from being hardy, TB germs can also develop resistance to drugs used against it. The only effective method is to use several different drugs combined together over a long period of time - usually a minimum of six months. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
 
msf-placeholder
Kenya

Nutritional emergency in Kenya

During the past three years, the district of Samburu - particularly the Baragoï zone - has been afflicted by a serious drought. Due to the scarcity of water and the loss of grazing land, MSF estimates that in this area populated primarily by herdsmen, 40% of the cattle have died. Project Update - 28 Sep 2000
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.

Learn more