Port Moresby, 25 November 2013 – Family and sexual violence (FSV) is a medical-humanitarian emergency with serious consequences for survivors, at individual and also family level. Its effects go far beyond domestic borders and affect public health at national level. Survivors need access to free, quality, confidential, integrated medical care, as well as high quality … Read more
Cindy Penalber is a Filipino nurse from the town of Estancia in northeast Panay Island. She has been helping survivors of Typhoon Haiyan since it hit the Philippines on November 8. Cindy and many of her colleagues are now working alongside Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) mobile clinic teams to provide medical care in … Read more
On November 22, 2013, the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for delamanid, only the second new TB drug to be developed in 50 years. It is hoped that the new drug, marketed by the Japanese company Otsuka, will be pivotal in improving … Read more
‘Patent opposition’ seeks to ensure production of affordable generics November 22, 2013, New Delhi/New York: DoctorsWithout Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supports the ‘patent opposition’ just filed at India’s Patent Office by the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK), which aims to prevent US pharmaceutical company Gilead/Pharmasset from gaining a patent in India on sofosbuvir, … Read more
November 22, 2013: At 2:50 am on Wednesday 20 November, a 2.2 kilogram baby boy, Justin James Warren Pambulan, was born in Guiuan on the east coast of Samar island in the Philippines. He was the first baby delivered in MSF makeshift maternity and labour room and his early cries were a final relief for … Read more
On November 22, 2013, the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for delamanid, only the second new TB drug to be developed in 50 years. It is hoped that the new drug, marketed by the Japanese company Otsuka, will be pivotal in improving … Read more
November 22, 2013: Developed specifically for natural disasters, MSF’s inflatable hospital is a temporary structure in which its teams will provide secondary healthcare and surgical care in the typhoon-hit city of Tacloban over the next three to six months while the local healthcare system is rebuilt. A team from the international medical organisation Doctors Without … Read more
November 20, 2013: Cradled in his father’s arms, five-month old Niño James Padernos cries feebly. He is coughing and has been feverish for two days, with red spots on his face. “Two days ago he came down with a fever. It didn’t go away,” says Niño’s mother. “His fever is very high, I am very … Read more
November 19, 2013: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in the Philippines are treating patients for wounds, chronic medical conditions, infections, and psychological trauma. Here, Dr. Natasha Reyes, MSF emergency coordinator, describes the widespread needs. MSF has been doing medical consultations in the ruined town of Guiuan for the past four days. Six hundred … Read more
Almost ten days after Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, aid is reaching airports, ports and cities but people in many rural areas are still struggling without assistance, says MSF emergency coordinator Caroline Seguin. Here, she describes the huge logistical challenges of getting emergency aid to where it’s needed most. “In the days since the typhoon … Read more