The Nation Newspaper

Tag: MSF

  • Another 16 die in Syrian town

    Another 16 people have starved to death in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya since United Nations aid convoys reached it earlier this month, according to charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

    The charity said there are also 33 people in danger of dying.

    Brice de la Vingne, MSF operations director, said the situation was “totally unacceptable” when people “should have been evacuated weeks ago.”

    MSF previously said 30 people died of starvation in the town late last year.

    Earlier in January, two emergency convoys of food and aid supplies were delivered to Madaya, where up to 40,000 people are believed to be trapped in appalling conditions, the BBC reports.

    The report comes as talks on ending the Syrian conflict take place in Geneva.

     

  • MSF condemns Afghan hospital attack

    The medical charity MSF has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” deadly air strikes on its hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz.

    Medecins Sans Frontieres said at least nine of its staff were killed in the attack. Many are unaccounted for.

    It said the strikes continued for more than 30 minutes after United States and Afghan authorities were told of its location.

    U.S forces were carrying out air strikes at the time. The NATO alliance has admitted the clinic may have been hit.

    At least 37 people were seriously injured, 19 of them MSF staff, the BBC reports.

    More than 100 patients were in the hospital, along with relatives and carers. It is not known how many of them were killed.

    MSF said that all parties to the conflict, including Kabul and Washington, had been told the precise GPS co-ordinates of the hospital in Kunduz on many occasions, including on September 29.

     

     

     

  • Boko Haram: 40,000 displaced in Chad – MSF

    At least 40,000 people have fled their homes in Chad in the last two weeks following attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, according to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

    The insurgency has already stoked an escalating humanitarian crisis in the region around Lake Chad.

    MSF said many of the displaced people have gathered in makeshift camps where its staff were treating patients with diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections, as well as malnourished children.

    “Some pregnant women have walked several kilometers in searing heat to seek medical attention,” said Federica Alberti, MSF’s head of mission in Chad. “People are living without proper shelter, and do not have access to food or clean drinking water.”

    The Lake Chad region has become increasingly unstable since 2013, with Boko Haram violence triggering a growing crisis. At least 1,300 people have died in fighting so far this year in the region, MSF said.

    In neighbouring Niger, refugees and displaced people face food shortages and an increase in waterborne diseases as the conflict compounds a fragile humanitarian situation, MSF said.

    The situation could deteriorate further during the “hunger gap” between harvests, when community food stocks are drastically reduced, MSF said.

     

  • Liberia declared Ebola-free

    Liberia declared Ebola-free

    Liberia was declared free from Ebola on Saturday after 42 days without a new case, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said, but it urged vigilance until the worst-ever recorded outbreak of the virus was extinguished in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.

    A total of 11,005 people have died from Ebola in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in December 2013, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

    Nearly half of those deaths have been in Liberia, where the outbreak peaked between August and October, with hundreds of cases a week, sparking international alarm, Reuters says.

    The United States sent in hundreds of troops to help build treatment clinics in a country founded by freed U.S slaves.

    Helped by the visible U.S. military presence, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government launched a national awareness campaign to stem the infectious disease, which is spread by physical contact with sick people.

    MSF said that Liberia’s completion of the WHO’s benchmark for the end of an Ebola epidemic – 42 days without a new case, marking twice the maximum incubation period of the virus – should not lead to complacency.

    “We can’t take our foot off the gas until all three countries record 42 days with no cases,” said Mariateresa Cacciapuoti, MSF’s head of mission in Liberia.

    She urged Liberia to step up cross-border surveillance to prevent Ebola slipping back into the country.

    The United Nations Special Envoy on Ebola, David Nabarro, said this week that Liberian authorities had pledged to maintain heightened surveillance for at least a year after being declared Ebola-free on Saturday.

     

  • MSF opens Ebola clinic for pregnant women

    MSF opens Ebola clinic for pregnant women

    Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) has opened the first care centre in the current Ebola epidemic for pregnant women, whose survival rate from the virus is virtually zero, the charity said on Saturday.

    There is currently one patient in the clinic, which is perched on a hill in the compound of a disused Methodist Boys’ High School in the Sierra Leone capital.

    More than 20,700 people have been infected with the virus in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since it began a year ago and at least 8,200 people have died, according to World Health Organization figures.

    The rate of transmission has slowed in Guinea and Liberia and there are signs it is starting to ebb in Sierra Leone, Reuters reports.

    Women are particularly vulnerable to a disease spread through direct contact with infected people and with the corpses of victims, because women often care for sick family members, said MSF Field Coordinator, Esperanza Santos.

    “Pregnant women (with Ebola) are a high risk group so they have less chance than the rest of the population,” she told Reuters. The charity has played a leading role in the fight against the virus.

    Medical authorities say it is unclear why the survival rate for pregnant women is lower than for other patients but early testing and rapid treatment will help lower mortality rates.

     

  • MSF: Ebola not death sentence

    MSF: Ebola not death sentence

    At least 146 patients have recovered from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease in the three endemic countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

     This is contrary to the belief among many in Nigeria that Ebola infection is a death sentence.

     According to the MSF, which has established Ebola treatment centers in the three countries, once a patient recovers from an Ebola disease, such patient is immune to that strain of the virus and can continue to live normal healthy life. The MSF also said an Ebola outbreak is considered at an end once 42 days have elapsed without any new confirmed cases.

     In Conakry, the capital of Guinea, the MSF said it admitted 232 patients with 124 confirmed Ebola cases while 64 patients have recovered and returned home. Also in Gueckedou, out of 366 patients of whom 169 were confirmed to have Ebola, 46 patients have recovered and returned home.

     Also in Sierra Leone, of 174 confirmed Ebola patients admitted by the MSF, 36 patients have recovered while another nine patients were discharged on August 4  after recovering from the disease.

     In 2012, the MSF effectively contained an Ebola outbreak in Uganda by placing a control area around the treatment center. The organisation has 676 staff working in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

     MSF said: “MSF welcomes the steps the World Health Organisation (WHO) is taking to adopt exceptional regulatory procedures in the face of an exceptionally grave Ebola epidemic. MSF is keen for its patients to benefit from any treatment that shows promise, and will continue to work with the WHO and other organisations to support an appropriate acceleration of procedure for any treatment that is considered a good candidate for a medical trial.”