Physician

Dr. Ana Maria Guzman, a physician and clinical researcher from Maryland, recently returned from six months overseeing medical activities at MSF’s clinic in the town of Gogrial, in South Sudan’s Warrap State. Below, she talks about her time in Gogrial, where MSF has worked since 2009 as the sole organization serving the medical needs of nearly a quarter of  a million people in the area.

People living in tribal villages in central India are caught up in the conflict between Maoist rebels and government forces. Dr. Rebecca Cuthbert describes how MSF takes the clinics to them.

MSF's Dr. Marta González talks about the challenges of diagnosing and treating kala azar in India's Bihar State.

In November 2010, Ivory Coast held elections during which President Laurent Gbagbo was defeated at the polls. Gbagbo refused to accept the results, leading to months of fierce fighting between his supporters and the supporters of the election’s winner, Alassana Outarra.

Dr. Grania Brigden, the advisor on tuberculosis with MSF’s Access Campaign, describes how children with TB that could be treated often go without care because of a lack of effective diagnostic tools and approaches. 

Dr. Faiza Adan Abdirahman, the medical doctor in charge of the pediatric department at Istarlin hospital in Galgaduud, discusses the situation in the area.

"It was very much a teaching mission—it was the first time, I did this sort of teaching. In any other mission, you do the job on your own, but in Misrata, I was able to disseminate my knowledge."

"It was very much a teaching mission—it was the first time, I did this sort of teaching. In any other mission, you do the job on your own, but in Misrata, I was able to disseminate my knowledge."

Dr. Morten Rostrup discusses MSF's ongoing Intensive Care Unit work in the western city of Zintan and plans for additional assistance.

Dr. Morten Rostrup discusses MSF's ongoing Intensive Care Unit work in the western city of Zintan and plans for additional assistance.

"There were so many patients, we had to stay in the hospital for two full days and nights. We operated around the clock, trying to stabilize the most serious cases."

MSF surgeon Cristiana Bertocchi recounts her time performing surgeries in the only functioning hospital in northern Abidjan during a period of intense fighting.

Dr Andrei Slavuckij, who has been following the evolution of TB in the former Soviet Union for the past dozen years, discusses the dynamics of the disease in a post-Soviet landscape.

MSF physician Cameron Bopp returned in July after several months in Africa. Here, he discusses his time in Malawi, during which he was tasked with overseeing the emergency response to the measles outbreak and setting up vaccination programs.

The food crisis in the Sahel region of Africa has caused widespread malnutrition, particularly among children.

Dr. Greg Elder, MSF's-USA Deputy Operations Manager, speaks about the ethical dilemma of amputation surgery.

In response to the earthquake that struck Haiti on the evening of January 12, MSF launched one of the largest emergency efforts in the organization's history. 

Six months after Haiti’s January 12 earthquake, MSF describes the organization’s largest ever emergency response.

Dr. Neil Stone, a physician from Scotland, is working with MSF to respond to a major measles epidemic in Malawi in southern Africa.

MSF opened a new treatment center for burn victims in Port-au-Prince to replace the one that was destroyed by the January 12 earthquake.

Despite the security situation, an MSF surgical team has started work in the General Hospital of Hawijah in Kirkuk governorate

MSF International President Dr. Christophe Fournier reflects on his time in Haiti and the many challenges to come.

We were very lucky because we found a dialysis center at General Hospital. It was broken down—there was no water, there was no electricity because of the earthquake. But with the MSF logisticians we could restart it in 36 hours.

MSF emergency physician Sebastian Spencer was working at Choscal hospital in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince, on January 20 when the area sustained a strong aftershock. Here he describes what happened.

In the central Somali city of Galkayo, Dr. Abdullahi Adan Mohamoud is working for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to provide health care to a vulnerable population trapped in a conflict-ridden and divided city. In this interview, he explains about the medical work needs in Galkayo and about working as a surgeon in Somalia.

"Since we left, at least 1,000 people have died of sleeping sickness in the region. It is unacceptable. We cannot stand here with our arms crossed and let people die that way. As soon as the situation allows, MSF will go back."

In his memoir, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village, physician James Maskalyk recounts his first Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assignment in Abyei, Southern Sudan. He and his team provided emergency medical care to the local population in this oil-rich region, which at the time was contentiously disputed. The book began as a popular MSF blog called Suddenly…Sudan.

Carol Calero is a field physician for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Currently she is working in the nutritional emergency in southwestern Central African Republic (CAR). In this interview, she talks about being in the heart of a health emergency and of the positive cases that keeps her spirits up.

In December 2008, 20 Somali students overcame huge odds and graduated from medical school in Mogadishu—the first batch to do so for almost two decades in the failed Horn of Africa state. Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, 26, was one of those receiving a diploma from the capital’s Benadir University. This is her story.

For patients with advanced HIV, complications from CMV retinitis— most notably blindness—are preventable. However, screening and treatment are out of reach in many places where CMV retinitis is prevalent.

Pediatrician Leo Ho worked in the intensive care unit of an MSF-run hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone, an area plagued by malaria. Here, he reflects on his assignment through images captured by photojournalist Francesco Zizola.

Dr. Christophe Fournier, MSF's International Council president, recently returned from an assessment mission to Darfur, Sudan, and describes the humanitarian situation there as well as the work and the challenges faced by MSF.

Dr. Sylvaine Blanty, a general practitioner, has been working at the MSF therapeutic feeding center for severely malnourished children in Aguié, Niger, for a month. Before coming to Niger, she had already worked with MSF in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She writes about her experience over the last month.

Morten Rostrup, MD, worked in Indonesia’s devastated Aceh province providing medical consultations to thousands of people who survived the earthquake-triggered tsunamis.

Claire Rieux, MD, is an MSF volunteer working in Sigli Hospital in Indonesia's Aceh province. Most of the Indonesian medical staff members in Sigli Hospital were killed by the tsunami.

Matthias Hrubey, MD, is a general practitioner who runs the MSF primary health clinic in Kass, a town whose population has swelled to an estimated 77,000 with the influx of approximately 48,000 people displaced by violence in the region.

Jason Wong, MD, a family physician from Seattle, Washington, recently returned from a three-month medical mission in Darfur, a region in western Sudan where more than a million people have been displaced by war.

Robert Levin, MD, a family physician from Minneapolis, Minnesota, returned recently from a six-month mission in Lira, a town in northern Uganda, where he treated malnourished children admitted to a therapeutic feeding center operated by MSF.

Forty-year-old Dr. Albert Tshiula headed MSF's Emergency Response Team in DR Congo after several years as a national staff physician. He has been field coordinator for the MSF program in St. Marc, Haiti.

Joy O'Hazy, MD, is currently with MSF in northeast Iran, where she provides medical care to Afghan refugees. Here she describes running a mobile clinic that sees up to 4,000 patients a month.

Andrew Schechtman is a volunteer doctor working for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Monrovia. In this excerpt form his diary, he describes the life and death struggles faced by those caught in the crossfire in the war-torn the Liberian capital.

Fokko de Vries, MD, (38) left Amsterdam in early April to assist Doctors Without Borders in refugee camps in Macedonia. He has previously worked in Sarajevo, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka. Fokko kept a diary of his first week in the camps in Brazda and Ragusa.