Lipi Upadhyay 
By Santosh Choure, Health Promotion Manager, Mumbai Mumbai is still seeing more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day. People are scared and many of them don’t prefer to get tested even though they have symptoms, as they’re afraid of being quarantined or hospitalized and separated from their family members. MSF is working in … Read more
By Mabel Morales, MSF Medical Coordinator The situation in India and in Mumbai is very bad and critical. We’re providing medical support to one of the COVID-19 treatment centres here in Mumbai with 1,000 beds. There are many, many cases and the last week of April has seen a real increase. The health workers are … Read more
By Dilip Bhaskaran, Project Coordinator, Mumbai COVID-19 project We have been collaborating with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to co-manage dedicated Jumbo COVID-19 Care Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). MCGM is doing a great job and we started this collaboration during the first wave providing patient care. Now, during the second wave, … Read more
On 12 May 2020, the maternity ward of the Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, was attacked. Twenty-four people were killed according to official sources. On 15 June, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders announced the decision to withdraw from the hospital. In parallel, we carried out an internal fact-finding exercise. Dr Isabelle Defourny, MSF director of operations, explains … Read more
Brussels: In a briefing paper released today, titled “Gasping For Air”, the international medical humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) highlights the importance of placing medical oxygen supply, not only vaccines and PPE, at the heart of a global COVID-19 response. With vaccines unavailable in the majority of countries worldwide, people will continue … Read more
By Aparna Iyer, Project Medical Referent, MSF Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Project in Mumbai MSF’s drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and HIV project is located in the M-East Ward, one of the TB high-burden areas in Mumbai. During the second wave, there was a high number of COVID-19 cases being reported, about 6,000-7,000 cases a day which forced authorities … Read more
NEW YORK — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontierès (MSF) applauds the Biden-Harris Administration’s decision to support waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Doing so will increase sufficient and timely access to these lifesaving medical tools as COVID-19 continues to ravage countries across the globe. Many of the low-income countries in which MSF operates have only received 0.3 percent of global … Read more
By Dr Gautam Harigovind, Medical Activity Manager, COVID-19 project, Mumbai Picture a thousand-bed hospital. There are 28 wards, as well as the emergency, casualty and triage areas. It’s a makeshift hospital in a huge metal tent. Walking into it the first time was a surreal experience; I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like walking … Read more
The second wave of COVID-19 in India has been devastating, with a catastrophic rise in the numbers of new infections in recent weeks. The country has now recorded over 18.7 million cases and over 208,000 deaths [1]. The outbreak of the new coronavirus is overwhelming for all healthcare providers. The situation is dire, with a lack … Read more
Over the course of 2020, COVID-19 thrust the world into a severe global health crisis. The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 put a tremendous strain on healthcare systems in low- and high-resource settings alike, as large numbers of patients with potentially life-threatening respiratory disease required specialised care. With no effective treatments available and stocks of personal protective … Read more