Research presented by Epicentre, MSF's epidemiological research arm, and other African researchers adds to evidence that the two existing rotavirus vaccines may not be best adapted for use in Africa.
In eastern Balochistan Province, MSF is extending existing services to include basic health care for people affected by heavy monsoon rains lashing the area.
A monsoon in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province caused an increase in the number of people diagnosed with acute watery diarrhea, a condition caused by unclean drinking water, poor sanitation, and poor hygiene conditions.
Mary Jo Frawley, a registered nurse from Vermont, went to Haiti days after the earthquake in January 2010. She thought she’d stay a few weeks, but wound up staying for 14 months.
In the immediate aftermath of last January’s earthquake, the potential of an outbreak of disease was a major concern. Months went by without it coming to pass, though, which seemed like a rare victory for the battered population. In September, however, word came from the Artibonite region in central Haiti, , that patients were presenting with cholera-like symptoms. Cholera had not been seen in Haiti in many decades, but the signs—rapid and severe dehydration caused by excessive vomiting and diarrhea—were all too apparent.
A nurse recently back from an MSF cholera treatment center in Port-de-Paix recounts what she saw, what was accomplished, and what remains to be done in the effort to battle the cholera outbreak in Haiti.
The Head of Mission for MSF in Haiti gives a first-person account of the situation on the ground for MSF teams responding to the spread of the outbreak in Port-au-Prince.
During the response to Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic earlier this year, medical teams from Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) started to work in prisons across the country to treat cholera patients and prevent the spread of the deadly disease. As the four-month intervention is concluding, MSF’s project coordinator in Zimbabwe, Pip Millard, gives insight into the challenge of curbing an outbreak in penitentiaries.
In Murwira Clinic, southeastern Zimbabwe, Dennis Taronga is receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with the help of MSF. Taronga, a husband and father of three who used to work as a builder, contracted cholera in January 2009 in the historic cholera outbreak that infected nearly 100,000 people and left thousands dead. This is his story.
Jane Hannon, a 39-year-old nurse from Baltimore, was in Manicaland Province in eastern Zimbabwe during November and December 2008. Here, she talks about trying to help people with cholera in the middle of a large-scale, rapidly spreading outbreak, in a country that has fallen into extreme disrepair.
Luis Maria Tello, MSF emergency coordinator in Zimbabwe, encountered a devastating scene when he arrived in the town of Chegutu, 100 miles south of the capital Harare, on December 12, 2008. “The situation was absolute chaos. There were no beds and patients everywhere,” said Tello. “People were dying of thirst because there was no water. Dead people were lying everywhere."
MSF was among the first organizations to provide large-scale assistance to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar and devastated the Irrawaddy Delta on May 3.
Since the start of 2008, 767 people suffering from cholera have required treatment in a cholera treatment center (CTC) supported by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) the city of Lubumbashi, the capital of Katanga province and the economic center of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On April 17, 2007 MSF launched an emergency medical response in Afgooye, Lower Shabelle Region, about 30 kilometers west of Mogadishu. Due to insecurity in the area, MSF decided to dispatch a team of senior MSF Somali staff from Nairobi and the Dinsor Health Center to evaluate the needs of thousands of displaced people who poured into the town following major fighting in Mogadishu.
Doctors Without Borders is approved by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501 (C) (3) tax-exempt organization, and all donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. Doctors Without Borders Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 13-3433452.
