Global security takes priority over health at G8 summit

"Today's inaction plan on health is a bitter pill to swallow for people in developing countries who know that", said Bernard Pécoul, director of Médecins Sans Frontière's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Project Update - 7 Jun 2003

South Africa

Townships hold breath for HIV decision

Hundreds are being helped by the MSF programme. Around a quarter of the half million people living in the ramshackle houses and shacks of Khayelitsha township are HIV positive. Project Update - 6 Jun 2003

Democratic Republic of Congo

MSF steps up relief efforts for cut-off populations in DRC

Years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have led to one of the worst emergencies in the world today, with millions of people already dead and thousands of others continuing to die from starvation and disease. Project Update - 5 Jun 2003

Access to Healthcare

NGOs slam G8 poverty pledges

Despite a pledge by leaders to strike a deal on providing cheap access to medicines before September, NGOs were unimpressed. Project Update - 3 Jun 2003

Ethiopia

Ethiopians moved for the third time

MSF started work on several locations in the beginning of this year. In three relocation sites in Biddre MSF takes care of the water supply and supports three clinics, besides running a therapeutic feeding centre, where an average of 130 acutely malnourished children are being cared for. Project Update - 3 Jun 2003

Brazil

Brazil's Lula slams rich nations on trade

WTO member countries have also yet to agree on terms to provide poor nations without adequate manufacturing capability can secure access to essential drugs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics. Project Update - 2 Jun 2003

Japan

Unkept promises

MSF appeals to G8 members at this year's summit to respect their promises, to show a true political will and mobilise the financial resources necessary to avoid the deaths and the human suffering caused by infectious diseases in developing countries. Project Update - 30 May 2003

Neglected diseases

Evian G8 - MSF calls for promises to be kept

14 million people die each year from infectious and parasitic diseases. That is 19,000 people per day, or 6 people every 30 seconds. Can we accept this? The MSF teams will symbolise the urgency of the current situation through the spectacle "Suspended Life". Every 30 seconds an MSF volunteer will try to reach a giant pill from the top of a 6-metre structure. Unable to reach the pill, the volunteer falls into the void... This new MSF exhibit premieres at the G8 conference.

Médecins Sans Frontières will be present at the Evian G8 summit from May 30 to June 3. Project Update - 30 May 2003

Malaria

Malaria - what works

To reduce mortality linked to malaria, MSF has introduced new first line therapy treatment in 12 of its programmes . MSF is also helping governments to change their treatment protocols to include artemisinin-combinations. Project Update - 30 May 2003

HIV/AIDS

G8 retreating from disease commitments: activists

A series of draft statements on health, obtained by MSF and shared with The Globe and Mail, shows progressively weaker language about AIDS and the killer diseases afflicting the poorest countries. Project Update - 30 May 2003

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

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We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

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