On the morning of Friday 1 April, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) finalised the first transfer or patients using a medical train in Ukraine. Nine patients in serious but stable condition were transferred from a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast of the country, to major referral hospitals in Lviv, following injuries from the war. The … Read more
From a seven-year-old child to a mother of two children, drug-resistant tuberculosis is rampant among all age groups. Globally, TB is the leading killer among infectious diseases. One-third of these deaths occurred in India. Patients either do not receive timely, accurate diagnoses or are unable to access the new drug regimen of Bedaquiline and Delamanid. … Read more
Sasha, a long-time staff member of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Mariupol, Ukraine, describes life in the city as it was encircled and bombarded by Russian forces. For security reasons, he is using only his first name. I was born in Mariupol, and I have spent my whole life in Mariupol. I studied … Read more
Aleksandr Burmin* is an MSF staff member in Ukraine. Here he recounts how war in Ukraine has displaced him for the second time in less than 10 years. As dawn broke on 24 February in Kyiv, Ukraine, I woke to the sound of explosions and the wails of air raid sirens. Huddled in my little apartment in the … Read more
Anja Wolz, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Emergency Coordinator currently based in Lviv, Ukraine, explains the urgency of this stage of the humanitarian response to the war in the country. Here in Lviv, I am getting multiple calls from hospitals with urgent appeals for assistance. We are embarking on an urgent race against time to … Read more
Dr Mohammed* works for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at Boost Hospital in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, where 400 severely malnourished children under five years of age are treated every month. Many of them are also suffering from worrying complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, or gastrointestinal problems. In the intensive therapeutic feeding centre, MSF teams focus on treating … Read more
Political turmoil and the arrival of COVID-19 has left Myanmar’s healthcare system shattered. With 2021 coming to an end, our team on the ground look back at our COVID-19 response, reflecting on what we can be proud of and what we could have done better; the dilemmas, limits and the sometimes-uncomfortable solutions. Myanmar’s public healthcare … Read more
On 16 November, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ search and rescue ship, the Geo Barents, responded to a distress call of a small wooden boat floating in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Our teams rescued 99 people; tragically, 10 people died, having been asphyxiated due to petrol fumes. Several days after the rescue, Geo Barent’s communications manager, Candida Lobes, spoke … Read more
The Afghan healthcare system has been fragile and plagued by major gaps for years now, and the suspension of international aid as a result of the recent political developments has further deteriorated the situation. In Herat, Doctors Without Borders/MSF teams are witnessing a worrying increase in malnutrition, says Mamman Mustapha, former Project Coordinator for in the … Read more
Nurse Gianna Falchetto returns from Lashkar Gah, where her team worked under extreme pressure to keep a hospital running… In the city of Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports Boost Hospital. It’s one of the largest public health facilities in the region, with a total of 300 beds available and staffed … Read more