Burkina Faso

About 10 inches of rain, roughly a quarter of the average annual rainfall, fell on Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, over 12 hours on September 1. The downpour created floods that destroyed more than 24,000 homes and displaced about 150,000 people—one in 10 of the country’s inhabitants.

More than 23,440 children have been treated, and 88 percent cured since MSF launched a nutrition program in Burkina Faso in September 2007. The majority of patients were treated with nutrient-rich, therapeutic ready-to-use food (RUF).

MSF has been quick to respond to meningitis epidemics in several countries in Africa's "meningitis belt." In the four countries–Burkina Faso, Sudan, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC-where the epidemic threshold has been reached MSF's first response was to evaluate the outbreak, identify the strain of meningitis, and treat people infected with the disease.

New York, Ouagadougou, March 23, 2007 – The meningitis epidemic that emerged in Burkina Faso at the end of February continues to spread. The most recent statistics issued by the health authorities in mid March show 801 deaths and 10,796 suspected cases since the beginning of the year. While two-thirds of the country is in an epidemic phase or on alert, the capital, Ouagadougou, is affected. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), already assisting hospitalized patients in the capital, is now stepping up its response. A cargo plane carrying vaccines for 540,000 people arrived on Saturday, March 17 with the necessary cold chain equipment, and MSF meningitis specialists are present in the county.

West African countries, including Liberia, Guinea, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, and Burkina Faso, are facing a particularly bad cholera outbreak this year. In most countries, a large number of patients come from the capital cities. MSF, already active in fighting cholera across the region, has sent in more staff and supplies in response to the outbreaks.