One million petition for greater access to medicines
International staff: 6
National staff: 30
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MSF's medical work in Burkina Faso added a distinctly
grassroots flavor in early 2002, with a campaign to soften strict
new rules that effectively limit access to essential drugs. At
the same time, a previously uncommon strain of meningitis
swept the country.
MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines intensified
in Burkina Faso in early 2002. In January, the Bangui Agreement
came into force in the country, one of 16 West African signatories.
This trade and regulatory agreement holds countries to stringent
rules regarding imports and generic manufacturing of
drugs. This effectively limits the countries' ability to make full
use of the provisions in the World Trade Organization's TRIPS
agreement which enable access to key medicines. MSF helped
mobilize an advocacy network dedicated to obtaining a review
and eventual softening of the Bangui Agreement. As part of this
effort, grassroots petitions addressed to the country's president
and prime minister garnered over one million signatures before being presented in July 2002. For more on the relation between trade-related intellectual property rights and access to
medicines, click here.
In spring 2002, meningitis again ravaged Burkina Faso, part
of Africa's "meningitis belt." The country experienced the
first large-scale outbreak ever recorded of W135, a rare strain
of the disease. While mass vaccination is key to containing
most meningitis epidemics, for the outbreak of W135 MSF and
other actors had to concentrate on treatment, because the only
effective vaccine is virtually unavailable in Africa and only
minimally available in Europe and America. Epicentre, an epidemiological
research center associated with MSF, has studied
the Burkina Faso outbreak in an effort to develop strategies
for fighting W135 in the coming years.
Over the last year, MSF began work with some of Burkina
Faso's many HIV/AIDS sufferers. In November 2001, a clinic
offering free and anonymous testing as well as treatment of
AIDS-related infections opened in the capital Ouagadougou.
Treatment to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to
babies is expected to begin by October 2002.
Meanwhile, a project providing medical and psychosocial
care to street children continued in Ouagadougou. Public
education over the last year included production of The Street
No Paradise, a film which was shown on national television
and in provincial cinemas. MSF also continued its support of
the Sindou health district in the southwest.
MSF has been active in Burkina Faso since 1995.
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