When I was asked to write about the research gaps in paediatric mental health research in conflict settings my first reaction was to shout about the unmet need in mental health services for children and adolescents. I often hear my health peers in the UK saying, “this child needs help but, with services as they […]
Category: MSF
Grania Brigden: TB patients take the stage—now for an R+D model that meets their needs
At last week’s Union World Conference on Lung Health, TB patients finally took centre stage, with patients invited to describe the realities of the two year treatment regimen for multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and advocacy groups storming events to call for greater vision in TB treatment and research. Their stories and concerns mirrored those shared […]
Unni Karunakara and Jean-Christophe Dollé: The limits of humanitarian aid—MSF and TB in Somalia
On 14 August 2013, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) took one of the most difficult decisions in our history and closed all of our medical humanitarian aid operations in Somalia after more than 22 years of assisting people who have suffered decades of war, epidemics, man-made and natural disasters. […]
Sophie Reshamwalla: The bomb blast injury boys of Pakistan
My mobile rings. It is a nurse from the Emergency Room (ER): “Dr Sophie, we have a boy whose legs have come off. Please could you come to help?” I shout “I’m coming!” before hanging up and starting the laborious task of correctly putting on my hijab, along with pulling on my shalwar kameez, making […]
Unni Karunakara: Médecins Sans Frontières’s decision to pull out of Somalia
Médecins Sans Frontières’s announcement on 14 August that we were closing all our medical programmes in Somalia sent shockwaves through political and humanitarian communities. It came at a time when world leaders, for the first time in decades, were beginning to make positive noises about a country on the road to recovery and with a stable […]
Julien Potet: How access to life saving antisera is dwindling fast, and what to do about it
What do snakebites, tetanus, and rabies have in common? Answer: Treating patients with these life threatening conditions relies on antisera, a class of immunoglobulin-rich products derived from the plasma of human volunteers or animals and used for passive immunization after suspected exposure (to tetanus or rabies), or for antivenom activity following snakebites. Each year about […]
Leslie Shanks: To err is humanitarian
I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It was in the middle of the chaos of the cholera outbreak that followed the refugee influx into Zaire in 1994 at the end of the Rwandan genocide. I was asked to see a young man who was critically ill with congestive heart failure. Kneeling on […]
Juliet Dobson: MSF scientific day 2013—how can we measure the impact of research?
How can we measure the impact of research? What is impact, and how can we show that research leads to measurable outcomes for patients? On 10 May, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) held their annual scientific day, and the focus of the day was to try and answer some of these questions. There was also a […]
Sarah Venis: MSF Scientific Day 2013
Does blogging help patients cope with the lengthy and toxic treatment for multidrug resistant tuberculosis? Do humanitarian responses to crises fail to take sufficient account of the plight of elderly people? Is giving money more effective than giving food supplements to tackle child malnutrition? And will global health expert and Ted Talks alumnus Hans Rosling […]
Estrella Lasry: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention—good news in a year marked by malaria emergencies
In 2012, MSF projects in several countries saw an important increase in cases of malaria, and a prolonged peak in areas of seasonal transmission. More than six emergency interventions were launched to fight this increase. While the past decade has seen drastic improvements in the response to malaria (rapid diagnostic tests, affordable artemisinin based combination […]