Fighting TB with Hope: Stories of Stigma and Strength from Three Generations in Mumbai, India

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

Manipur: MSF’s COVID-19 emergency response in Imphal

The second wave of COVID-19 hit India at the end of March 2021. In April, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) sent doctors and nurses to work in Mumbai’s Jumbo Hospital that had a capacity for 2,000 patients. Teams also adapted regular medical projects to support patients receiving care for HIV (in Manipur), tuberculosis (TB) … Read more

World AIDS Day: Why are people living with HIV still dying of AIDS in India?

It is unacceptable that people living with HIV are still dying because the tests, treatment and care for life-threatening infections are not available Today on World AIDS Day, we mark four decades when mysterious illnesses started to take lives that we know now were due to the HIV virus that dramatically lowers the body’s immune … Read more

Manipur: MSF’s COVID-19 emergency response in Imphal old

The second wave of COVID-19 hit India at the end of March 2021. In April, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) sent doctors and nurses to work in Mumbai’s Jumbo Hospital that had a capacity for 2,000 patients. Teams also adapted regular medical projects to support patients receiving care for HIV (in Manipur), tuberculosis (TB) … Read more

World Mental Health Day: Healing the invisible wounds

MSF doctors and nurses are often seen treating physical ailments. But for people who have lived through terrible events and difficult health conditions, the psychological consequences can be severe.   Today, mental healthcare is considered as an integral part of most of our medical activities. For more than 20 years, we have been providing care for patients’ … Read more

COVID-19 in India: Fighting misinformation on the frontlines

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

COVID-19 in India: “The situation is terrible, but the commitment of the staff is extraordinary

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

COVID-19 in India: “We’re just not able to find enough nurses”

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

It’s not only vaccines: Oxygen must be at the heart of the COVID-19 response

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

COVID-19 in India: Tackling tuberculosis in the middle of coronavirus pandemic

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