Visit the MSF-USA 2019 Annual Report landing page >>
Read MSF's 2019 International Activity Report >>
Dear Friends,
Looking back on the events of last year, it is astonishing how much we were able to achieve against terrible odds—and sobering to realize how much of this urgent work continues, almost completely overshadowed by the world’s preoccupation with the COVID-19 pandemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams carried out lifesaving medical activities in 72 countries last year. This year, we have undertaken a massive effort to keep these essential services running even as we adapt to respond to the extraordinary threats posed by the new coronavirus.
In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where we have our largest medical operations, our teams carried out 1,687,910 outpatient consultations. While international attention was focused mainly on the Ebola outbreak, we sounded the alarm about other pressing health needs—including the world’s largest measles epidemic. More than 7,000 people, mostly young children, have died of measles. That’s more than three times the number of people killed by Ebola, despite the availability of a safe and effective measles vaccine. MSF teams vaccinated more than 679,500 children against measles and treated some 48,000 patients in our facilities to help bring the epidemic under control. Well into 2020, we were still fighting measles here, as well as malaria, cholera, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and COVID-19.