Doctors Without Borders

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis in 2011.

” A month after the earthquake and tsunamis struck, MSF teams in Japan had performed around 1,700 consultations.”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis in 2011.

“On March 11, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the Northeast. The quake caused a series of massive tsunamis that flattened coastal areas and swept up to six miles or 10 km inland. MSF sent a team into the region by helicopter the day after disaster struck..”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis.

“The area devastated by the natural disasters has a predominantly elderly population, and many of the survivors had lost their prescriptions and medication. MSF medical teams were able to help them resume their treatment regimes.”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis in 2011.

“Since the disaster, a medical and logistic MSF team of 12 people has been working in evacuation centers in Minami Sanriku, and in Taro, Iwate prefecture. Seriously injured people were swiftly evacuated by national authorities, but many of the people in the evacuation centers were elderly and suffering from chronic diseases.”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis in 2011.

“MSF doctors treat an elderly patient in Minami Sanriku, in Miyagi prefecture, northeast Japan.”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

In honor of the one year anniversary of the earthquake and it’s results in Northeastern Japan, we’ll be posting a series of photographs from MSF’s work during the crisis in 2011.

“In addition to providing medical and psychological care, MSF teams have distributed blankets and hygiene items to people sheltering in the evacuation centers.”

Photo:© Giulio Di Sturco VII Mentor

“While international attention focuses on Myanmar, a health crisis in the country looms large. An estimated 85,000 people infected with HIV in Myanmar are not receiving lifesaving treatment.

This is an improvement on previous years with new momentum in the country to tackle the crisis. However, the recent retreat of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria threatens to undo improvements, leaving tens of thousands of people living with HIV and TB without treatment and a large scale crisis unchecked.”

—Joe Belliveau, MSF operations manager in Myanmar

This article originally appeared in Thailand’s The Nation newspaper.

Meeting with patients at an MSF clinic in southern Myanmar.

Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

Myanmar: Urgent Action Needed Against HIV and TB

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people living with HIV die every year in Myanmar because of lack of access to lifesaving ART. TB prevalence in Myanmar is more than three times the global average and Myanmar is among the 27 countries with the highest MDR-TB rates in the world. Like non-resistant TB, MDR-TB is easily transmitted through the air and can infect perfectly healthy people, but requires far more complex and lengthy treatment.

MSF currently treats more than 23,000 HIV patients in Myanmar. An additional 6,000 people will be enrolled in MSF clinics in 2012. Worlwide, MSF treats more than 170,000 people living with HIV.

Photo: Myanmar 2012 © Greg Constantine. A young man co-infected with HIV and TB at MSF’s clinic in Yangon.

One year after a devastating earthquake killed an estimated 222,000 people and left 1.5 million people homeless on January 12, 2010, Haitians continued to endure appalling living conditions amid a nationwide cholera outbreak, despite the largest humanitarian aid deployment in the world.

Now two years later, MSF is increasing hospital capacity in earthquake-affected areas as 500,000 people are still officially displaced and access to health care is nearly non-existent.

Photo: Haiti 2010 © Kadir van Lohuizen / NOOR

At our clinic in Djibouti, doctors and nurses scramble to treat a never-ending influx of young malnourished patients. In the Starved for Attention film “Frustration,” Marcus Bleasdale documents clinic workers speaking about the successes and frustrations of their work.