MSFsouthafrica's blog
Renewed violence Hits Pinga in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
Heavy fighting over the last few days in Pinga, a town in the conflict-afflicted North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has made it difficult for Médecins Sans Frontières to carry out its vital medical work. Thousands of the town’s inhabitants have fled into the surrounding forests and eleven of MSF’s Congolese staff members are missing.
'We Ran Because of Fear. Four People in Our Village Were Killed in the Fighting'
Shaba is 35 years old and has been living in Jamam camp with her family since December.
“We left our village Buk in September because there was fighting. In Buk, we had everything, but now we are naked. Four people in our village were killed in the fighting. My husband and I ran with our five children, but we got separated. We ran because of fear. My husband had three children and I took two. After one day’s walk, we met again in Kukur.
Malaria Drug Resistance and High Infection Rates a Potential Time Bomb
On 25th of April, the annual World Malaria Day, many health organisations will highlight important gains in fighting this deadly disease that claims more than one million lives every year. But despite notable progress in terms of innovation and investment, Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continues to see continuously high rates of malaria in several African countries.
Five Lives: Getting on to Effective TB Treatment Earlier
‘Five Lives’ are the stories of people that Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) works with every day, whose health and lives often hang on a simple medical intervention.
These personal experiences are a snapshot of the unnecessary suffering MSF medical staff see first-hand daily in places where people can’t get adequate medical care and that could be avoided with proper, sustainable funding and investment.
MSF Names Two Spanish Abductees, Crucial Medical Activities Stopped
On 13 October 2011, an Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) team suffered an attack in Dadaab, Kenya. One of the MSF drivers, Mohamed Hassan Borle, 31, was injured during this attack. His medical condition is stable, he is out of danger and remains hospitalised. Two international staff, both Spanish, were taken. As yet, MSF has not been able to establish contact with the two staff taken. A crisis team has been set up to deal with this incident.
MSF Makes its Submission to South African National AIDS Council for the New National Strategic Plan
The most important document guiding government’s response to HIV in South Africa is the National Strategic Plan for HIV, AIDS and STIs (the ‘NSP’). This document is South Africa's ‘HIV Constitution’, defining national objectives and commitments on HIV treatment and prevention.
Almost All of the Hospitals Around the City are Receiving Wounded
A three-person Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) team is currently in Tripoli with supplies and is starting to support facilities that are already overwhelmed with patients wounded in the fighting currently taking place in the Libyan capital. MSF has also dispatched teams to Zlitan, east of Tripoli, and Al Zawiyah, to the west, to support hospitals faced with an influx of wounded. Speaking from Tripoli, Jonathan Whittall, MSF Emergency Coordinator, describes the situation on the ground.
Inside Somalia: "We Are the Only Help they Have"
Interview with Mohamed Somane Abdi, MSF Assistant Project Coordinator, Marere, southern Somalia.
The drought has affected us badly. Marere used to be a farming area but there has been no harvest now for more than two years. You can see the effects of the drought right here in our hospital, where numbers of patients in our inpatient feeding centre have doubled.
Last night, 80 under-fives with severe malnutrition stayed in the hospital, while we were treating a further 443 children as outpatients.
"Hunger and destitution..."
