Five days after the Nargis Cyclone hit Myanmar/Burma, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to offer emergency assistance to victims. MSF teams are providing food, basic relief items, and medical care, and are improving access to clean water for people affected by the cyclone. On Tuesday night,...
What assistance have you been able to set up already? On Monday we distributed emergency items including plastic sheeting for shelter to several thousand people. On Tuesday and yesterday, we've managed to distribute a weeks worth of food to 2,000 people in the Twantey area, two hours away from...
Immediately after the cyclone hit several regions in Myanmar, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in the country, began assessing and responding to the needs of the population in Yangoon and the neighbouring areas. Our first assessments show that in the Daala and Twantey zones, South of Yangoon,...
A UN health research and development (R&D) summit concluding in Geneva last week has failed to take concrete action towards reforming a medical innovation system that largely disregards the health needs of millions of people in developing countries. 'What we wanted to see was governments...
Distribution of food, plastic sheeting and the chlorination of water The Nargis cyclone, which affected several areas of Myanmar caused the death of at least 10, 000 people and provoked severe material damage. Three days after the cyclone, large parts of the population remain without drinking water...
"I came here to get cured or to leave forever the hope for getting cured. This hospital is my last resort," a patient in the Nukus MDR-TB hospital. Irina (47) has had tuberculosis (TB) for eight years. She completed the regular DOTS course and to maintain her health she ate dog's fat – a popular...
This week, more than 150 countries at a UN health R&D summit in Geneva have a chance to put right a great wrong. At the heart of the problem is a broken system of medical research and development (R&D) which largely disregards the health needs of millions of people in developing countries...
Despite the signing of a Peace Agreement in 2005, which ended more than two decades of civil war between the north and the south of Sudan, medical needs in Southern Sudan remain overwhelming. Outbreaks of disease and violence continue, while many people still do not have access to basic health care...
People with health needs today simply cannot wait for a time when there is a functioning health care system with enough medical facilities and sufficiently trained staff. More than three years after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005, medical needs remain...
