The 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health, recently held in Barcelona, opened with the health ministers of South Africa and India making bold commitments to address and reverse the tuberculosis epidemics in their countries. Five other countries also committed to ending TB, resulting in the birth of the Barcelona Declaration on TB. This political commitment […]
Category: MSF
The price of joining the middle income country club: reduced access to medical innovation
When people think about medical humanitarian aid, the usual association is with war zones and natural disasters, and the assumption is that the most critical medical needs are concentrated in the world’s poorest countries. That’s mostly right, but not entirely. While the needs of low income countries remain huge, there are large—and growing—populations excluded from […]
Grazia Caleo: Ebola—a blind outbreak
In José Saramago’s book Blindness, he describes an epidemic of an unknown infection that causes people to lose their sight. A single person remains uninfected to bear witness to the anger, chaos, violence, and death generated by the spread of disease. In the novel, humanity’s descent into blindness represents the loss of reason and shows how […]
Sarah Woznick: A nurse’s account of working in Gaza
Sarah Woznick is a specialist intensive care nurse working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/ Doctors Without Borders). She arrived in Gaza six months ago from Denver, Colorado. She was due to leave the mission the day after operation “Protective Edge” began, but decided to stay on to help provide medical care. Image: Sarah in the […]
MSF Scientific Day 2014: The role of evidence in humanitarian aid
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, in which between 500 000 and a million people were brutally killed. The international community failed to act and MSF concluded that “you can’t stop genocide with doctors.” The aftermath of the genocide included analysis of the failures of humanitarian aid, and led to moves […]
Estrella Lasry: Malaria control in emergencies—time for action
A lunar landscape, cracked earth, and scorching heat. 4,000 rudimentary tents made from wooden poles and plastic sheeting. And people everywhere, 95% of them women and children, according to camp authorities, and a few men, hoping at least to find safety and security, and perhaps even to make a first step towards a new life. […]
Goodman Makhanda and Jennifer Hughes: Drug resistant TB—dying for better treatment
Two weeks ago there was a small celebration in a primary care clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Siyabulela Qwaka* was officially declared cured after taking more than two years of treatment for pre-XDR TB (extensively drug resistant tuberculosis). This is hugely significant given that the chance of cure for someone with pre-XDR or XDR TB is […]
Tane Luna Ramirez: Humanitarian disasters leave women at higher risk
Today, as International Women’s Day approaches, up to 23,000 people will be forced to flee their homes, joining 45 million others around the world who are already displaced due to conflict, persecution, or natural disaster. Of course people of both sexes suffer and die from the direct consequences of these displacements, and from the crises […]
Manica Balasegaram: Drugs for the poor, drugs for the rich—why the current research and development model doesn’t deliver
The past month has seen the reputation of “Big Pharma” dented more than usual. The CEO of German pharmaceutical company Bayer, Marijn Dekkers, was reported as saying that the company didn’t develop a cancer drug for the Indian market, but rather “for Western patients who can afford it.” The comment summed up the attitude of […]
Helen Bygrave: HIV viral load in Africa—no longer why but how?
Access to HIV viral load monitoring in resource poor settings has long felt a bit like the search for the Holy Grail—a seemingly hopeless, but essential quest. But at the recent ICASA conference, the corridors were buzzing with the possibility that routine use of this technology in sub Saharan Africa could soon become a reality. […]