This month signals a critical moment for the future of global health financing as high-level political representatives meet in Addis Ababa for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development to discuss how the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be funded. Current trends in stagnating spending on aid and a finance-driven rhetoric risk abandoning […]
Category: MSF
MSF Scientific Day 2015: A conference without borders
At the time of writing, the west Africa Ebola epidemic at last appears to be under control, and, as the response is scaled down, there is more capacity within Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to begin to appraise the evidence collected, technological approaches trialled, and lessons learned. Much of the analysis is yet to come—the work […]
Grania Brigden: Time for a jumpstart—accelerating access to new and promising DR-TB drugs
World TB Day is an opportunity to reflect on the progress that has been made in beating this ancient disease. At first glance, the news looks good: two new drugs—the first in decades—have been registered for hard-to-treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and the global rate of new cases of MDR-TB has remained stable at 3.5%. However, […]
Christmas Appeal: Hitting the ground running—surgical transfer in South Sudan
I arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on 2 January for two whirlwind days of being briefed on my new role as medical specialist in Yida refugee camp, which is at the northern edge of South Sudan. On Sunday, my rest day before flying north, I was asked to help arrange care for a […]
Christmas Appeal: The 12 days of constructing an Ebola management centre
Sunday: As soon as you touch down in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Ebola hits you—or the awareness of it. Health forms to fill in, chlorine handwashes before you even enter the terminal building, zapped with a temperature gun before you step outside. Public health messages and precautions continue throughout the city: big posters announcing that “Ebola is […]
Christmas Appeal 2014: A silent hunger
I have been in Pakistan for six months, two thirds of the way through my nine month mission. Before working in Pakistan, I had spent some time working in the north of Australia with the Aboriginal community. In the Northern Territory of Australia, there is a big issue with malnutrition in the Aboriginal population, especially in […]
Christmas Appeal 2014: Gibson Chijaka—I cannot hold back my joy
My name is Gibson Chijaka, and for the last two years I have endured dozens of nauseating tablets every day. Today, I am so happy and cannot hold back my joy; I am cured of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Me with my grandmother, Margaret Kadzere, October 2014. © Stambuli Kim/MSF […]
Christmas Appeal 2014: An intensive care unit in a conflict zone
Two people with gunshot wounds are brought to the MSF hospital in Leer. They were at a celebration the previous evening when someone entered and started shooting. Five people were seriously injured. Two of them managed to reach our hospital, but the other three died on the way. […]
Thomas Nierle and Bruno Jochum: MSF should not replace governmental responsibilities on Ebola
MEP Charles Goerens, rapporteur on Ebola to the European Parliament’s Committee on Development, recently declared in a European Council meeting that this epidemic is “the first major international crisis in which the lead should be given to an NGO [non-governmental organisation]—in this case, Médecins Sans Frontières.” Given that we have repeatedly called for greater leadership […]
Christmas Appeal 2014: Benjamin Black on Ebola through his eyes
When I begin each day I feel like I know what to expect. I have been in and out of west Africa since June, and watched this sad story developing both as a direct witness on the inside, and as an observer from afar when back home. In the Ebola treatment centre where I work, […]