My mobile rings in the middle of a busy day, “Hi Rachael, its Brigitte from MSF UK, I’ve had a call from Paris, they were wondering if by any chance you could be free to go to Syria next week?” A week later—Chris and Elaine from the anaesthetic department having worked wonders with the rota—I […]
Category: MSF
Ruby Siddiqui: Emergency epidemiology—what does this mean?
“Mortality rates in a refugee camp in South Sudan are nearly double the threshold for an emergency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned” said a BBC report on 6 July 2012. “In Yida camp, [MSF data show] at least five children dying each day, most from diarrhoea and severe infections,” 2 August, MSF press release. […]
Judit Rius Sanjuan: Do no harm—how a US led free trade agreement threatens the prospects for an AIDS free generation
The theme of the 19th International AIDS Conference that took place in Washington, DC recently was “Turning the Tide Together.” It captured the inspiring optimism and momentum around HIV/AIDS. Fuelled by new science showing that a combination of prevention and treatment tools can start reversing the AIDS epidemic if implemented at scale, and buoyed by […]
Sarah Venis: Going digital – join in the online Médecins Sans Frontières scientific day
Why does a medical humanitarian organisation like Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hold a yearly scientific conference? The common image of MSF has more in common with Angelina Jolie’s film efforts than with the well trodden academic routines of powerpoint presentations and poster galleries. Although venues and audiovisual technology have changed since the conference was first […]
Andrew Moscrop: Nutrition and gender in Pakistan
Into the Kuchlak nutrition clinic shuffles a pale blue burqa. From within the sky-coloured folds of fabric, the Pashtu woman pulls a tightly swaddled infant. Her son is eleven months old. Unwrapped, the boy’s ribs stick out, the skin hangs loosely from his limbs and his head seems too big for his body. He weighs […]
Andrew Moscrop: Emergency training in Pakistan
Every night, every half-hour, the whistle and stick man visits. We’ve never met, but I know his work. His job is to walk the streets of our neighbourhood between sunset and sunrise, blowing a whistle and tapping a stick to keep the local security guards awake (as if the barking of automatic rifle fire was […]
Estrella Lasry: Responding to malaria: a view from the ground
Yesterday was World Malaria Day, a day that for me is filled with contradictions. There are many reasons to feel encouraged. Globally the number of malaria deaths is dropping, thanks to progress on several fronts over the past decade: better prevention strategies, including widespread distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets; rapid, easy-to-use diagnostics; and more effective […]
Andrew Moscrop: Neonatal intensive care, Pakistan
There are five sick babies and only four incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit. What do I do? The infants who get the incubators and the ventilation equipment may survive because of it; the child who does not will probably die because of the omission. What would you do? Five tiny hearts flutter desperately […]
Grania Brigden: Time to make TB the enemy that can’t hide
As the Kony 2012 campaign continues to sear the image of Joseph Kony—head of the Ugandan guerilla group, the Lord’s Resistance Army— into the world’s consciousness, it’s worth remembering that there is another, more deadly killer at loose on the African continent. This killer is tuberculosis. The two have much in common. They have no […]
Andrew Moscrop: Road traffic injuries in Pakistan
Lying on his back, a trail of his drying blood scuffed across the dusty concrete floor, the young boy was alive and screaming. As he drew his knees up to his chest I watched his right foot flop and flap from the end of a mangled segment of shattered bone, shredded muscle, and tattered skin. […]