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During a vaccination campaign in the Central African Republic, MSF also screens children for malnutrition.

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  • Home
  • Our Work

What we do

Doctors Without Borders brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics and healthcare exclusion.

Our focus

Learn about the crises our teams respond to, and how we adapt to provide the highest quality medical care in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.

Armed conflict causes injury, displacement, sexual violence, and death, but it also continues to impact people’s lives and health long after the front lines have shifted. War devastates health systems, hampers access to medical supplies, and disrupts vaccination and other disease-prevention efforts, heightening the risk of outbreaks.

In conflict zones, MSF does not take sides. We provide medical care based on needs alone and work to reach the people most in need of help. Nearly one-fourth of MSF's projects are dedicated to assisting people living in conflict.
 

Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and major storms can force people to flee their homes and cut off access to safe water, health care services, and transportation, affecting the lives of tens of thousands in a matter of minutes. When minutes matter, MSF’s network of aid workers in more than 70 countries around the world are often the first to deploy rapid, lifesaving medical care. We keep pre-packaged supply kits to launch rapid responses as quickly as possible.

Millions of people around the world still die each year from infectious diseases that are preventable or treatable. Those at highest live in poverty or other precarious conditions, with limited access to health care and vaccinations.

During an outbreak of an infectious disease like cholera, measles, yellow fever, or Ebola, MSF teams react swiftly to provide lifesaving vaccines, treatment, and epidemiological services. From setting up temporary facilities to treat patients to running mass vaccination campaigns to improving water and sanitation services to help prevent the spread of disease, MSF teams adapt our emergency responses to the unique needs of communities.

More than 82 million people—or 1 in 95 worldwide­—have been forcibly displaced from their homes, fleeing conflict, persecution, natural disaster, or other hardships. On the move and in camps they are often forced to live in precarious conditions, cut off from essential services including health care.

When people are displaced, MSF teams conduct rapid needs assessments and work closely with affected communities to provide services including vaccination; primary and mental health care; nutrition support; provision of shelter, drinking water, and latrines; and more.
 

Medical issues

Learn about how, why, and where MSF teams respond to different diseases around the world, and the challenges we face in providing treatment.

Providing maternal health in Uganda

Maternal health

An estimated 99 percent of women who die in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications live in developing countries. Most of these deaths are preventable.

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Primrose and her child Panashe as doctors confirm the seven-year-old boy is suffering from TB.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is the world’s leading infectious disease killer, accounting for 1.4 million deaths worldwide in 2019.

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Dr Wardak Abdul Qayoum assists the expat microbiologist in supervising the team and carrying out isolation, identification and sensitivity testing of the 3000 bacterial strains expected. He uses a plastic loop to take a colony of bacteria from the culture plate.

Antibiotic resistance

Resistance to antibiotics has become a global health crisis, complicating the treatment of bacterial infections and endangering lives around the world.

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Issues in focus

Emergencies move fast, and so do we. Learn about some of the emergencies MSF is responding to around the world.

COVID-19 Project in Brussels, Belgium

COVID-19: Our global response

Facts and figures about the coronavirus emergency

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Global migration and refugee crisis

Record numbers of people have been forced from home and struggle to find safety.

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The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti: Ten years after the earthquake

A look at the urgent medical needs then and now.

Read More
SEE MORE

We go where many others can’t or won’t

When disaster strikes, our teams of doctors, nurses, logisticians, and other staff are often among the first on the scene—sometimes arriving in a matter of minutes. Our financial independence enables us to freely evaluate medical needs, reach communities in need without restriction, and directly provide high quality medical care.

Explore where we work >

An MSF boat speeds on the Pibor River

The latest news & stories

Amanda Maribel Sánchez, 28, fled Copan and Lempira, Honduras, seeking asylum for herself and her two children.

MSF statement on court ruling that blocks the lifting of Title 42

News May 20, 2022

News May 16, 2022

Central Mediterranean: 470 people rescued by MSF need a place of safety

Rotation 11 - Rescues 1 & 2

News May 12, 2022

Haiti: A wave of violence strikes Port-au-Prince

Insecurity in Port-au-Prince

News May 19, 2022

Dire reception conditions and a lack of emergency medical care for migrants arriving in Panama

San Vicente migration centre

story Sep 28, 2021

My abortion story

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How you can help

Not everyone can treat patients in the field. But everyone can do something.

Some humanitarian crises make the headlines—others don’t. Unrestricted support from our donors allows us to mobilize quickly and efficiently to provide lifesaving medical care to the people who need it most, whether those needs are in the spotlight or not. And your donation is 100 percent tax-deductible.

We need your support to continue this lifesaving work

We need your support to continue this lifesaving work

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How we use funds

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