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.
"The need for a swift reaction to the malaria epidemic in this region is genuinely pressing," explained Francois Fille, MSF Operational Co-ordinator for the region. "But the scattered nature of the islands means that it takes a great deal of time to travel between them. A further constraint is the eruption of a volcano in the provincial capital, Ternate, which means the temporary closure of important facilities such as the airport and the banks."
MSF has sent a team to South Halmahera, in North Maluku, Indonesia to tackle a malaria outbreak in the region. The decision to intervene was made based on information gathered with the provincial health authorities which revealed alarming malaria-related mortality rates over the last months, especially among children under the age of five.
The first MSF intervention took place from July 20 to 22 in the small town of Tawabi where in the preceding two weeks alone, six children had died from the disease. In two days the team carried out 259 consultations. Of a population of only 824, 117 people tested positive for the most deadly Falciparum malaria strain, and seven for Vivax or other strains of malaria.
The second intervention in Sumai resulted in 167 consultations, with 56 testing positive for Falciparum and 15 for one of the other three strains of malaria. Over the last week, the team visited Marimoi, Bumoi Rahmat, Cango and Loleba villages, where they also found worrying numbers of Falciparum positive patients.
"The need for a swift reaction to the malaria epidemic in this region is genuinely pressing," explained Francois Fille, MSF Operational Co-ordinator for the region. "But the scattered nature of the islands means that it takes a great deal of time to travel between them. A further constraint is the eruption of a volcano in the provincial capital, Ternate, which means the temporary closure of important facilities such as the airport and the banks."
The MSF project aims to reduce illness and deaths caused by malaria by introducing a treatment known as 'ACT' - Artemisinin-based combination therapy. This involves combining artemisinin derivatives (extracts of a Chinese plant) with another anti-malarial drug. ACT is currently considered to be the best available treatment for malaria in the region, since resistance to Chloroquine and Fansidar, the drugs which are generally used as the first-line treatment in Indonesia, has become widespread. The MSF project will be the first time that Artesunate-Amodiaquine combination therapy is used to fight against malaria in the country on such a large scale.
"Many of the people living in the remote, rural area have only recently returned to their homes after fighting in the region caused people to flee in 1999. The health system still lacks the staff, resources and medicines to cope with such malaria outbreaks," explained Fille.
