After severe floods hit eastern Nigeria in September, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provided medical assistance and distributed aid kits to populations in need. Hundreds of villages were destroyed and thousands of people were affected by the floods, which occurred after heavy rainfall caused the Benue River to rise above its banks. The situation was worsened … Read more
It was my first mission as an orthopedic surgeon for MSF to Teme hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The flutter of excitement was perceptible because it was my first mission as well as the fact that I was travelling to a distant country about which I knew very little. I arrived in Paris after an overnight … Read more
After two grueling years of treatment, Mary Marizani is MSF’s first patient in Zimbabwe to beat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). While this is great news, there is still an urgent need for better treatment that cures people in less time and with fewer side effects. In her home on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital city, 48-year-old … Read more
The harvest is almost in, but MSF continues to admit new patients to its emergency feeding programme in eastern Chad It is early morning, and already hot, when two 4×4 vehicles pull up in front of a small health centre in the village of Angara in eastern Chad. A crowd of women and children huddle … Read more
Hundreds of thousands of people are still at risk from cholera two years after the epidemic began in the aftermath of the earthquake which devastated the country. In the capital, Port-au-Prince, more than 350,000 survivors of the earthquake are still in camps, and many thousands are living in shantytowns, where sanitary conditions are deplorable and … Read more
New ‘Patent Opposition Database’ aims to boost access to medicines in countries increasingly hit by high drug prices Geneva, October 5, 2012 – The international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders has launched an online resource to help civil society and patient groups in developing countries challenge unwarranted drug patents. … Read more
“What I am doing here?” was the question that clicked into my mind on landing at Hargeisa airport. I had been looking out of the aeroplane window to see if it was a big town, and was astonished to find that I could hardly see the runway and was in for a bumpy landing. © … Read more
© MSF Vanlalsiam, a teenage boy, recovers from a complex HIV and TB infection. Fiona Fisher, MSF’s doctor in Manipur where the boy was treated, tells about the fight put up by the boy and her medical team for his health. Vanlalsiam’s grandmother takes care of him as his parents and two siblings have all … Read more
An Interview with André Heller, MSF head of mission in South Sudan Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) work in Yida camp is proving effective. MSF has reduced the mortality rate in the camp, which is now the home of families seeking refuge from conflict and food insecurity in Sudan. However, living conditions remain a concern, as … Read more
NEW DELHI/GENEVA/NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012—The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis heads to the Indian Supreme Court today in New Delhi, in a final bid to undermine a key public health safeguard in Indian patent law specifically designed to prevent drug companies from abusive patenting practices that keep medicine prices high, the international medical humanitarian organization … Read more