In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.
Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.
Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.
Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.
Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.
Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.
MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.
The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.
A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.
Malaria epidemic and food crisis combine to create a very worrying situation in northern Burundi
Press Release15 January 2001
Burundi- The international medical aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today expresses alarm about the increasingly worrying situation for the population of northern Burundi who face both an unprecedented malaria epidemic and a food crisis. All possible means must be used to urgently help the population there. MSF urges the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide sufficient food in northern Burundi for a general food distribution to take place. Without this, the consequences could be disastrous.
In the province of Karuzi, an MSF assessment shows a quarter of all children suffer from problems of malnutrition, and the situation is worsening day by day. At least 59 children died during the month of December, 2000.
"The children are coming in a very bad state which reduces their immunity. This makes them more susceptible to malaria and other diseases, resulting in more deaths," explained Andy Durrant, Co-ordinator of MSF in Bujumbura.
MSF runs two therapeutic (intensive) feeding centres and eight supplementary feeding centres, mainly targeting children under 12. Two urgent openings of new therapeutic feeding centres are to take place in Buhiga and Gitaramuka. Around 600 children suffering severe malnutrition need around-the-clock care - which will be provided in these feeding centres. The number of children requiring such care has doubled since November, 2000. MSF's supplementary feeding centres provide weekly extra food rations to about 16,500 people.
Last year's harvest failed. The impending harvest looks likely to be insufficient to meet the needs of the population. The rains came late and when they did come, the rain fell so heavily that floods destroyed many of the crops.
A significant malaria epidemic is currently raging in the north of the country, which has further weakened the population’s strength. The referral hospital in Karuzi, for example, currently has around 300 patients but only 125 beds. Last November, more that 720,000 malaria cases were reported throughout the entire country. In the provinces of Kayanza and Ngozi, the health centres supported by MSF were carrying out 25,000 consultations per week.
In response to this humanitarian crisis, two MSF charter planes left Belgium at the end of December 2000, and a third still left this Saturday with tonnes of logistical material and food items (high-protein peanut paste, high-energy milk etc).
But the affected populations urgently need a general food distribution. The World Food Programme, which is already active in other areas in Burundi, must organise this urgently.
MSF also calls upon relevant donor agencies to support the WFP with funds for this vital work.
