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TanzaniaIn Tanzania, MSF cares for people affected by malaria and HIV/AIDS. The team also assisted vulnerable refugees arriving from Burundi with little or no resources. 2005 was a difficult year for people living in Tanzania, one of the world's poorest countries. Its public health system is very weak and recent national elections caused conflict and violence. Nowhere are the health system's deficiencies more pronounced than in its inability to combat malaria. The disease, one of the main causes of death in the country, kills 100,000 people yearly, mostly children. After much urging by MSF and others, the government has now introduced artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) into its national treatment protocol in place of anti-malarial drugs that now encounter high resistance. The new treatment was immediately put to the test and shown to be effective when a malaria outbreak occurred last year in March. 
Photo © Monica Rull / Victoria Perez An MSF staff member with patients at a Kibondo refugee camp, Tanzania. MSF sent an emergency team for six months to the Muleba district of the Kagera region in the northwest of the country in March 2005 to help respond to a malaria epidemic occurring in the region. Giving treatment through a network of 2 hospitals, 1 health center, and 15 clinics, MSF cared for 1,000 to 1,500 patients per week during the height of the outbreak. In total, 10,500 people received medical care from the team including 6,000 outpatients and 3,500 patients admitted for care. This work was done in cooperation with the local health authorities and the national malaria control program. Expanding HIV/AIDS careMalaria is not the only health scourge affecting the people of Tanzania. Today, an estimated 120,000 people die each year from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Approximately 6.5 percent of the country's 37 million people are now living with the disease. Because of the state of public health facilities, many die having never received a diagnosis or needed care. In October 2004, MSF started a project to treat HIV/AIDS patients in the southwestern Makete district. This is a remote, rural area in the Iringa region near Lake Malawi where HIV-related care is almost nonexistent. The team gives comprehensive HIV/AIDS care including antiretroviral (ARV) treatment (which was introduced in January 2005). By mid-2006, 1,216 patients were obtaining care through the project, including 583 people getting ARVs. The team is also training community members and health care workers and providing medical material including lab equipment, condoms, medicines for opportunistic infections, and logistical material for waste management. Assisting victims of violenceBetween September and December 2005, political violence surrounding the presidential elections in Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous island off the coast, led to many injuries among civilians. MSF provided care to some of the wounded during this time, caring for approximately 275 people. Helping Burundian refugees
Photo © Monica Rull / Victoria Perez The Kibondo refugee camp, where MSF provided primary health services, increased water supply standards, improved general hygiene and sanitation, and detected and responded to disease outbreaks. In February 2006, MSF traveled north to the area of Kibondo, northern Kigoma, near the border with Burundi when thousands, fleeing hunger, entered the country. Many of the approximately 7,000 Burundian refugees were actually originally from Tanzania, having left the country for the Rujigi area of Burundi years earlier. The Tanzanian government was slow to respond to their arrival and needs, not wanting them to settle in refugee camps. This led to situations where thousands of refugees gathered in transit camps set up for only 100 people. Many had no choice but to sleep in the open. With only a few international nongovernmental organizations providing assistance, in March, MSF began working in the Nyakimonomono way station. The team ran an outpatient clinic (conducting about 180 medical consultations a day), distributed water, built shelters and monitored the group's nutritional situation. By mid-2006, most of the refugees had left the area and MSF ended its intervention. Zanzibar project closedThe malaria project based on the island of Zanzibar was closed in December 2005. In cooperation with local health authorities, MSF's project there had achieved its goal of increasing access to ACT malaria treatment in the districts of Unguja and Pemba. In addition to helping those with malaria, the center's staff also offered treatment to those with acute diarrhea, respiratory infections and anemia, all conditions mostly affecting young children. MSF worked in three of the six local districts, covering 42 health facilities. The team trained local staff and also put waste management areas into place in all of the facilities. MSF has worked in Tanzania since 1993. |
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