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Doctors Without Borders: Ongoing needs in hurricane-damaged Haiti
Fourteen days after Tropical Storm Gustav made landfall, followed by Tropical Storm Hanna and then Hurricane Ike last week, many areas are still inaccessible in devastated Haiti.
Since arriving in the northern Haitian city of Gonaïves on September 4, one of the worst affected areas in the country, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have carried out 641 medical consultations and performed 25 surgical procedures. Half of the people screened so far by MSF have suffered at least minor injuries. The remaining patients are suffering from diarrhea (and related dehydration), respiratory diseases, infections, and skin problems linked to polluted water, with such cases on the increase. While most of the patients are adults, an increasing number are children.
With floodwaters now receding slightly, people are beginning to return to Gonaïves, adding additional stress on already strained health and sanitation facilities. Temporary health clinics in some schools are lacking basic materials and equipment. MSF teams have donated medical materials and plans are underway to open a field hospital in Gonaïves.
Currently, MSF has five medical personnel (two doctors and three nurses) and six logistical staff (three general logisticians and three water and sanitation specialists) in Gonaïves.
Clean Water a Priority
At the Rabouteau Health Center in Gonaïves, MSF has carried out over 150 consultations as of yesterday. One-third of the people examined were children under five years of age. Two water bladders were also set up at the center in order to provide clean drinking water, which is in very short supply in the city.
Limited Access to Other Devastated Areas
Access to other hurricane-affected areas outside of Gonaïves is extremely difficult; many roads and airstrips are flooded, bridges are destroyed, and there is a general lack of fuel, which is reducing, if not preventing, relief assistance—including clean water, food, or basic medical needs—from reaching many parts of the country. MSF is doing its best to access these areas to provide adequate care to affected populations and to monitor the health situation.
On Monday night, MSF sent an additional five vehicles and one truck to Gonaïves by boat. In the coming days, a team of four medical personnel and two logisticians will attempt to start mobile clinics and surveillance activities in the northwest area between Gonaïves and Port de Paix (including Terre Neuve, Anse Rouge, and Gros Morne) which has an overall estimated population of close to one million people. An additional 13.2 tons of medical and logistical materials (medical kits, pumps, tents, mosquito nets, water treatment kits, water tanks, generators, and blankets) are on the way from Europe and from Panama.
Existing MSF activities in Port-au-Prince are continuing. MSF provides medical and surgical care at La Trinité Trauma Center, emergency obstetrical care in Jude Anne Hospital, and emergency health-care services and essential health services through mobile clinics in the Martissant slum.
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To help the people of Haiti you can also do so through Doctors Without Borders
http://doctorswithoutborders.org Fourteen days after Tropical Storm Gustav made landfall, followed by Tropical Storm Hanna and then Hurricane Ike last week, many areas... more -
Treating Thousands of Malnourished Children In Ethiopia
In the past month Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has admitted more than 4,000 severely malnourished children into its nutritional programs in the Oromiya and Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s regions (SNNPR) of southern Ethiopia. On May 13, MSF set up a stabilization center to provide 24-hour medical care to severely malnourished children suffering from complications such as malaria or pneumonia in Ropi, Oromiya region. Since then two more centers have been set up in Senbete Shinquille and Shashemene, Oromiya region. In total 927 children have been admitted to these three centers, with 290 currently receiving care.
Many of them are suffering from kwashiorkor—a form of edema caused by malnutrition, which manifests in liquid retention in the legs and feet. Kwashiorkor is a serious condition that can lead to death from heart failure or other complications.
Children who are not suffering from complications are treated on an outpatient basis in outpatient therapeutic programs. They are provided with therapeutic food on a weekly basis, but are able to stay at home with their families. They return to these outpatient centers every week to be monitored by MSF medical staff and can be referred to a stabilization centre if necessary. In Oromiya MSF has eleven such outpatient centers in various locations throughout the region.
On June 2, MSF teams also started working in the Kambata zone of SNNPR. One stabilization center has been set up in Kachabira district. As of June 13, 150 children were receiving medical care there. Four outpatient centers have also been established; two in Kachabira district and two in Hadero district. In the last two weeks, more than 900 severely malnourished children have been admitted into these programs and are receiving therapeutic food.
In the coming days MSF will continue to expand its activities by increasing the number of outpatient centers in both Oromiya and SNNPR. In addition, MSF teams will continue to carry out assessments in order to identify the worst affected areas and respond where necessary.
The above is from the site for MSF:
http://doctorswithoutborders.org In the past month Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has admitted more than 4,000 severely malnourished children i... more -
Trapped Somali Populations Need Immediate Life-Saving Assistance/Doctors Without B...
The people of Somalia are currently facing a massive humanitarian crisis with unmet critical medical needs. In May alone, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams working in the Mogadishu suburbs of Hawa Abdi and Afgooye treated more than 2,500 children suffering from acute malnutrition, with admissions to MSF nutritional programs doubling in April and doubling again in May. Malnutrition rates have exceeded emergency thresholds for a year. The number of new cases is drastically increasing while external assistance is dwindling in quality and quantity due to high insecurity and increased targeting of humanitarian workers. Somalis attempting to flee the violence have few options for escape, as the main border crossings are closed.
“Somalia is no longer on the verge of a catastrophe, the disaster is happening now,” said Bruno Jochum, MSF director of operations in Geneva. “Last week alone, over 500 severely malnourished children were admitted to our nutritional programs. One out of six of these children needed to be hospitalized due to medical complications. If this trend continues, malnutrition may soon affect more of the general population such as children over five-years-old and vulnerable adults. The situation is tragic and we are unable to provide the aid necessary to prevent further deterioration of the situation.”
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And governments of the world continue to use their force in these regions to gain control over resources while the people continue to die. The people of Somalia are currently facing a massive humanitarian crisis with unmet critical medical needs. In May alone, Doctors With... more -
Somali and Ethiopian Migrants Face Violence in Waters Off Yemen
Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty. The trip is fraught with danger, as people are exposed to violence from smugglers and receive little assistance upon their arrival in Yemen. A new report published by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), titled “No Choice,” documents the conditions of the perilous journey and calls for increased assistance for the thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants fleeing their home countries to Yemen.
Due to the escalation of conflict in Somalia and the drought affecting the Horn of Africa, the numbers of new arrivals are increasing. In 2007, according to the United Nations, 30,000 people embarked on the dangerous trip; during the first five months of 2008 over 20,000 arrived in Yemen. Many of them never made it. In 2007 over 1,400 dead and missing people were reported; so far, in 2008, 400 people have not reached the shores of Yemen alive.
The report, released on the eve of World Refugee Day, is based on over 250 testimonies gathered by MSF teams in Yemen since September 2007. The refugees arrive exhausted, many of them sick and emotionally shattered. Boats of 8- to 10-meters, designed for 30 or 40 people at the most, are packed with over 100 passengers. People are forced to sit in the same position without moving during the two or three days of the journey and are, in most cases, deprived of water and food.
The smugglers are extremely brutal, beating anyone who dares to move. Conditions are even worse for people stuck in the holds of the boat -- tiny, windowless spaces meant for storage. Twenty people or more are crowded in these spaces, literally sitting on top of each other. Conditions are so harsh that deaths during the trip were reported from one third of the boats. The main causes were severe beatings, lack of food and water, and suffocation from being in the hold. Several of those interviewed also reported cases in which the smugglers threw passengers, including children, overboard.
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These are the types of stories we do not see in the MSM. This is absolutely horrific.To think people are going through this willing to risk their lives to escape their countries knowing that where they are going isn't much better only illustrates so starkly the conditions they are forced to live in that lead to these desperate moves. Thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians risk their lives every year to cross the Gulf of Aden to escape from conflict and extreme poverty.... more -
Doctors Without Borders: 'Plumpynut' new food advance to fight malnutrit...
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for increased and expanded use of nutrient dense ready-to-use food (RUF) to reduce the five million annual deaths worldwide related to malnutrition in children under five years of age. Current food aid, which focuses on fighting hunger—not on treating malnutrition—is not doing enough to address the needs of young children most at risk.
What is therapeutic ready-to-use food?
Commercialized therapeutic RUF takes the form of a peanut/milk-based paste with all nutrients essential to treat severe acute malnutrition. It comes in individually wrapped airtight foil packets, that are resistant to bacterial infection and easy to distribute. The product has a long shelf life, making it easy to store, transport and to use in hot climates as an efficient way to provide milk to children under three.
"It's not only about how much food children get, it's what's in the food that counts," said Dr. Christophe Fournier, president of MSF's International Council. "Without the right amounts of vitamins and essential nutrients in their diet, young kids become vulnerable to disease that they would normally be able to fight off easily. Calls for increased food aid ignore the special needs of young children who are at the greatest risk of dying."
RUFs, which come in individually wrapped rations, contain all the necessary nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that a young child needs. This dense therapeutic food, which has milk powder, sugars, and vegetable fats, can be produced and stored locally and transported easily, and requires no refrigeration, making it ideal for use in hot climates. It allows a child to recover from being malnourished and catch up on lost growth. Being easy-to-use, mothers—not doctors and nurses—are the main caregivers, meaning far more children at risk can be reached.
"In Somalia we are giving acutely malnourished kids packets of ready-to-use food and we see them gain weight and begin thriving within a couple of weeks," said Dr Gustavo Fernandez, MSF head of mission in Somalia. "RUFs are practical to use in places like Somalia where security is very bad. General food distribution is also needed, but it is not going to be very effective to treat kids under three years old."
Severe acute malnutrition in early childhood is common in large areas of the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and South Asia -- the world's "malnutrition hotspots." The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 20 million young children suffering from severe acute malnutrition at any given moment and MSF estimates that only three percent of them will receive RUF in 2007. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for increased and expanded use of nutrient dense ready-to-use food (... more -
Doctors Without Borders:Responds to Cyclone In Myanmar
Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, formerly called Burma, on May 2, 2008, affecting several areas of country, and causing a huge number of deaths. More than a week later, large parts of the population remained without drinking water, food, and shelter, and little international aid had reached people in need.
By May 14, 4 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) cargos planes carrying a total of 140 metric tons of relief supplies, including tents, medical material and drugs, pumps and generators for water and sanitation activities, and ready-to-use therapeutic food had arrived in Yangon. Another plane with supplies is scheduled to arrive in Yangon from Jakarta on Friday. The first plane with nearly 40 tons of emergency relief items arrived on the morning of Monday, May 12.
MSF has now more than 250 staff and between 10 and 20 new staff arriving daily. MSF teams are working in Pyanpon, Bogaley, Haingyi, Pyinsalu, Tongwa, Labutta, Thingangon, and Chaungzu. Another team traveled to Dedaye on May 14 in order to assess the situation.
MSF has hired two large boats to use in Pathien (Bassein), an MSF operational hub, bringing the total number of boats used to transport aid in the Irrawaddy Delta to ten. This is combined with the ten trucks that MSF is using to bring aid from Yangon to Pathien. So far, MSF has managed to distribute 275 tons of locally purchased and existing stocks of relief supplies, including food, plastic sheeting, and oral rehydration sachets, in the region. On May 14, MSF teams distributed aid to around 15,000 people and distributed a total of 6,000 plastic sheets
More at the link about Doctors Without Borders and their exceptional work in Myamnar and around the world. They are in my opinion the most reputable organization if you are looking for one to donate to in order to help the people there who need it so desperately. And with reports more erratic weather is heading to the same location, they will need these types of organizations who can gain access to their country. Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, formerly called Burma, on May 2, 2008, affecting several areas of country, and causing a huge number of de... more -
Helping Haiti - A look into the ongoing work of the MSF in Port-au-Prince.
A short doc that focuses on the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontièrs/Doctors without Borders) project that is currently active in Martissant: a neighborhood in the south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, still considered a "Red Zone." A short doc that focuses on the MSF (Médecins Sans Frontièrs/Doctors without Borders) project that is currently active in Martissant: ... more
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Surgery and Recovery; Then Back to Iraq.
A look at the work of Doctors Without Borders, treating badly wounded Iraqi civilians.
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