Photo: Over the next four weeks, MSF project coordinator Will Turner and his team will mount an expedition to screen 40,000 people for sleeping sickness in remote villages of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

DRC: Through northern Congo with a fridge

Travelling along muddy rainforest tracks by motorbike and crossing swollen rivers by dugout canoe while carrying a refrigerator, a microscope and a generator is no easy task. But this is what MSF project coordinator Will Turner and his team will be doing for the next four weeks. 

Without treatment, sleeping sickess - transmitted by the tsetse fly - is always fatal.

Photo: The sign outside the health center in Pinga, where armed conflict has made provision of care difficult. DRC 2013 © MSF

DRC: Thousands Flee Violence in Pinga, North Kivu

Thousands of people have fled the town of Pinga in recent days amid a new wave of armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s North Kivu Province, making it very difficult to ensure that they receive essential medical care. “Civilians are routinely exposed to this violence—this is the eighth time Pinga has changed hands since 2012,” said Jan Peter Stellema, MSF’s operations manager in Goma. “A number of patients had to be transferred for emergency surgery to Goma, among them a 70-year-old woman shot in the arm.”

Photo: A child is tested for malaria in Orientale Province. DRC 2012 © Aurelie Lachant/MSF

DRC: Urgent Action Needed to Prevent Malaria Deaths in Orientale Province

An upsurge in malaria is likely to have serious consequences for people in Orientale Province in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) unless immediate action is taken. “Too many health centers lack the supplies necessary for coping with a new outbreak, and this is completely unacceptable,” said Dr. Narcisse Wega, MSF emergency coordinator.

Photo: The raining season may close off vehicle access to roads, but MSF staff will find the means to reach their patients in need. DRC 2013 © MSF

Photo: An MSF clinic in Kitchanga, North Kivu. DRC 2009 © Michael Goldfarb

DRC: North Kivu Fighting Damages Health Structures and Displaces Thousands

Amid fighting in the town of Kitchanga in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has caused widespread casualties and damage to health facilities, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is mobilizing medical resources to the affected area, the organization said today. More than 55 civilians have reportedly been killed in the fighting, and 135 people wounded. Shelling also struck St. Benoit Hospital in Kitchanga today, killing two people and wounding eight. Many homes and other buildings have been burned, including the MSF compound. Thousands of civilians have fled. “We call upon all parties to the conflict to respect the neutrality of health structures,” said Hugues Robert, MSF’s head of mission for North Kivu province. “MSF is very concerned about the plight of civilians during intense periods of fighting like this. All parties to the conflict should not harm the population.” Several MSF Congolese staff members were displaced from their homes by the fighting, and widespread panic and fear is gripping the population as tensions between communities in the region escalate. Reaching Kitchanga is extremely difficult. An MSF surgeon, anesthetist, nurse, and emergency logistician arrived by helicopter yesterday to provide additional support to an MSF medical team based in the town. Dressing kits, surgery kits, medicine, plastic sheeting, and tents were also delivered. Several wounded people were also transferred to the North Kivu town of Mweso and to the provincial capital, Goma, for further treatment.

Photo: If not treated on time, measles-affected children often develop severe medical complications, such as respiratory infections and malnutrition. DRC 2013 © Tristan Pfund/MSF

Measles Continues to Stalk the DRC

This past December, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) issued an alert about a measles epidemic in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s Equateur and Orientale provinces, trying to draw attention to the situation and the lack of resources available to health personnel responding to the emergency. Two months later, however, the measles epidemic is still afflicting tens of thousands of children in the area. The disease is extremely contagious and can spread quickly in countries like DRC that have large gaps in their health care systems. The effects can de devastating. Measles leads to serious medical complications in patients. Mortality can reach up to 15 percent, or even as high as 25 percent in extreme instances. Since March 2012, MSF has treated more than 18,500 patients and vaccinated more than 440,000 children, but it is clear that many more need assistance. “We see lots of small, recently dug graves along the roads,” says Nathalie Gielen, manager of an MSF team returning from Djolu health zone in Equateur. “We counted 35 dead in one village. A father told us that he had lost seven children in three weeks. Traveling from village to village, we hear just one word: measles. People are frightened and hopeless. They’re asking for help.”

Photo: MSF doctor Susanna Ericsson examines a young patient. DRC 2013 © MSF

Letter from Shamwana, Democratic Republic of Congo

MSF doctor,Susanna Ericsson works in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where ongoing fighting between government forces and Mai-Mai militias in Katanga province has forced thousands of people to flee into the surrounding bush fearing for their lives. Here, Dr. Ericsson describes the experience of one such patient.

Our patient arrived early in the morning the day after we removed all non-essential staff from the project. She was the first person to be taken care of by our emergency “skeleton” team.

She was 23 years old, and came from a small village called Kilenge that has no health care facilities at all. The village is 25 kilometers [about 15 miles] from Kafumbe, where there is a small health post. There has not been anybody working at the health post for a long time because of the fighting and because there is a lack of health personnel and medicines in this region.

The patient had started getting abdominal pains at home, and got worried as she was already late in her pregnancy. She went over to her mother’s house and a traditional birthing attendant and a traditional healer were called for. For three days this woman drank concoctions of different herbs and the traditional healer gave her some physical exercises to do to get the baby out.

On the fourth day, the baby still hadn’t been born and her family was very worried as she had developed fever, smelled very bad, and the pain was worse than ever. At 3:00 am that morning the family set out for Shamwana where MSF runs a hospital offering free medical care to all.

It took the family 48 hours to reach MSF’s hospital on foot. The patient was transported on a bicycle, and 10 men and 4 women came along as protection, since the roads are not safe, and they were worried about an ambush.

Upon arrival at the hospital in Shamwana the patient immediately went into emergency surgery. A serious infection had already spread though her body and her baby had died. There is no doubt that without the surgery provided by MSF, the woman would not have survived. 

Photo: Patients in South Kivu wait to receive measles vaccinations in a 2010 MSF mass immunization campaign. DRC 2010 © Haavar Karlsen.

65,000 Children Vaccinated Against Measles in DRC’s South Kivu

In the past month, MSF teams in the Bunyakiri region of Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu Province have vaccinated more than 65,000 children aged 6 months to 15 years against measles. The campaign had to be briefly suspended in the north of the region due to the volatile security situation in an area where several armed groups are present and fighting is frequent.

Photo: Patients in the inpatient department of an MSF hospital in Katanga Province. DRC 2012 © Sandra Smiley/MSF

DRC: Thousands of Displaced Civilians at Risk in Katanga Province

As tensions increase between government forces and Mai-Mai militias in Katanga province, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, all parties must avoid harming thousands of civilians who have fled into the surrounding bush.

The exact extent of the displacement is hard to quantify, but most of the villages along a 115-kilometer [about 71 miles] road from Shamwana to Dubie are empty, as are villages along a 70-kilometer [about 43 miles] stretch between Shamwana and Mpiana.

“Civilians risk being caught up in the fighting and mistaken for combatants,” said Christine Slagt, MSF project coordinator in Shamwana. “Some militia groups are preventing people from leaving the area.” 

This week, MSF removed nonessential staff from its referral hospital in Shamwana, about 300 kilometers [about 186 miles] from the provincial capital Lubumbashi, leaving a skilled core team with surgical capacity to respond to an expected increase in war-wounded patients.

MSF has been running the hospital since May 2006, providing people living in the Kiambi, Mitwaba, and Kilwa health zones with free health care. Medical teams treat malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malnutrition, and provide reproductive health services, mental health care, and emergency surgery.

Photo: People queue for food distribution in Mugunga III camp. DRC 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

DRC: High Levels of Sexual Violence in Goma Camps

People displaced by armed conflict around Goma are now suffering high levels of sexual violence in and around the camps where they have taken shelter.

Between December 3, 2012, and January 5, 2013, the MSF team working in Mugunga III camp, a few kilometers west of Goma, registered and treated 95 patients who were victims of sexual violence, with a notable increase in late December. MSF denounces the lack of action on the part of those responsible for protecting civilians and the poor security conditions in the Goma camps. 

“The camps and surrounding villages face a glaring lack of security,” said Thierry Goffeau, MSF head of mission in Goma. “The responsible authorities and the leaders of the various armed groups all claim—without exception—that they are defending the civilian populations. They must thus assume their responsibility and ensure that the most vulnerable are not subject to violence or reprisals.”