Posts tagged DRC

By Foot, Bike, Car, or Canoe: Patient and Staff Stories of Malaria in DRC “My name is Zamukunda. I tested positive for malaria at the health center. This morning I delivered my first child, a boy who weighed 1.6 kg [3.5 pounds]. My labor began very late last night, which was a surprise because I was still far from my delivery date. I was in a lot of pain and was bleeding, which made me worry, so I left the house with my mother and we walked for two hours to reach this health center. My baby was born at two in the morning. He was not breathing very well and I was continuing to bleed so MSF decided to transfer us in their car from Kashuga to the main hospital in Mweso. We picked up another woman and her child who was very sick with malaria. The trip took only an hour since there has not been much rain. Now I am in the intensive care unit at the hospital with my baby, who is on oxygen. So far we are doing okay.” Zamukunda’s son was born at seven months. She did not know how malaria would affect her pregnancy or her baby. The high fevers caused by the disease can provoke contractions and lead to premature delivery. Zamukunda and her son are receiving treatment at MSF’s Mweso hospital.Photo: DRC 2012 © Sandra Smiley Patients receiving malaria treatment in an MSF-supported hospital in Katanga province.

By Foot, Bike, Car, or Canoe: Patient and Staff Stories of Malaria in DRC

“My name is Zamukunda. I tested positive for malaria at the health center. This morning I delivered my first child, a boy who weighed 1.6 kg [3.5 pounds]. My labor began very late last night, which was a surprise because I was still far from my delivery date. I was in a lot of pain and was bleeding, which made me worry, so I left the house with my mother and we walked for two hours to reach this health center.

My baby was born at two in the morning. He was not breathing very well and I was continuing to bleed so MSF decided to transfer us in their car from Kashuga to the main hospital in Mweso. We picked up another woman and her child who was very sick with malaria. The trip took only an hour since there has not been much rain. Now I am in the intensive care unit at the hospital with my baby, who is on oxygen. So far we are doing okay.”

Zamukunda’s son was born at seven months. She did not know how malaria would affect her pregnancy or her baby. The high fevers caused by the disease can provoke contractions and lead to premature delivery. Zamukunda and her son are receiving treatment at MSF’s Mweso hospital.

Photo: DRC 2012 © Sandra Smiley Patients receiving malaria treatment in an MSF-supported hospital in Katanga province.

Pregnant With MalariaPatient: Zamukunda [name changed], 20 years old and pregnant, Mweso Hospital, North Kivu “My name is Zamukunda. I tested positive for malaria at the health center. This morning I delivered my first child, a boy who weighed 1.6 kg [3.5 pounds]. My labor began very late last night, which was a surprise because I was still far from my delivery date. I was in a lot of pain and was bleeding, which made me worry, so I left the house with my mother and we walked for two hours to reach this health center. My baby was born at two in the morning. He was not breathing very well and I was continuing to bleed so MSF decided to transfer us in their car from Kashuga to the main hospital in Mweso. We picked up another woman and her child who was very sick with malaria. The trip took only an hour since there has not been much rain. Now I am in the intensive care unit at the hospital with my baby, who is on oxygen. So far we are doing okay.”DRC 2012 © Sandra Smiley Patients receiving malaria treatment in an MSF-supported hospital in Katanga province.

Pregnant With Malaria

Patient: Zamukunda [name changed], 20 years old and pregnant, Mweso Hospital, North Kivu

“My name is Zamukunda. I tested positive for malaria at the health center. This morning I delivered my first child, a boy who weighed 1.6 kg [3.5 pounds]. My labor began very late last night, which was a surprise because I was still far from my delivery date. I was in a lot of pain and was bleeding, which made me worry, so I left the house with my mother and we walked for two hours to reach this health center.

My baby was born at two in the morning. He was not breathing very well and I was continuing to bleed so MSF decided to transfer us in their car from Kashuga to the main hospital in Mweso. We picked up another woman and her child who was very sick with malaria. The trip took only an hour since there has not been much rain. Now I am in the intensive care unit at the hospital with my baby, who is on oxygen. So far we are doing okay.”

DRC 2012 © Sandra Smiley
Patients receiving malaria treatment in an MSF-supported hospital in Katanga province.

MSF Blogs: 18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle to Survive Severe Malaria Time is everything—delay treatment and the parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a point of no return. Lejuif—the nurse on duty—and I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock. He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on his chest—he was in a coma—and his chest heaved up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed an immediate blood transfusion. This post originally appeared on the Guardian’s (UK) “Poverty Matters” blog.DRC 2011 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Like Bahati, three-year-old Jean Marc is being treated by MSF for severe malaria.

MSF Blogs: 18-Month-Old Bahati’s Struggle to Survive Severe Malaria

Time is everything—delay treatment and the parasites multiply unchecked and the child reaches a point of no return. Lejuif—the nurse on duty—and I started with the sickest looking child, 18-month-old Bahati. His feet were cold, signalling he was in shock. He didn’t respond when we rubbed him vigorously on his chest—he was in a coma—and his chest heaved up and down. He had severe respiratory distress. His hemoglobin, the measure of how much oxygen his red blood cells could carry, was very low. He needed an immediate blood transfusion.

This post originally appeared on the Guardian’s (UK) “Poverty Matters” blog.

DRC 2011 © Robin Meldrum/MSF
Like Bahati, three-year-old Jean Marc is being treated by MSF for severe malaria.

This 20-month old boy was brought to the emergency room of MSF’s Niangara Hospital unresponsive and close to death. One of the first steps of treatment was to wrap him in a survival blanket to increase his body temperature. A particularly troubling aspect of the increase in malaria cases in DRC is the high number of severe cases requiring hospitalization and urgent blood transfusions due to malaria-induced anemia. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

This 20-month old boy was brought to the emergency room of MSF’s Niangara Hospital unresponsive and close to death. One of the first steps of treatment was to wrap him in a survival blanket to increase his body temperature. A particularly troubling aspect of the increase in malaria cases in DRC is the high number of severe cases requiring hospitalization and urgent blood transfusions due to malaria-induced anemia. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

After arriving by canoe in Ntondo, Equateur Province, DRC, an MSF nurse screens people for malaria. The response includes screening and treating patients, and referring severe cases to the nearest health facility. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

After arriving by canoe in Ntondo, Equateur Province, DRC, an MSF nurse screens people for malaria. The response includes screening and treating patients, and referring severe cases to the nearest health facility. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

As the sun went down and the ridges of the Mitumba mountains turned a smoke blue, a line of mothers sat quietly on a wooden bench in front of the nurses’ station in the pediatric tent. The children lying prostrate in their laps were new admissions, too weak to protest against the nurses, who wore miner’s headlamps to help search for a vein to place a drip.

Chris Bird, a former Reuters and Guardian reporter, put down his notepad and left more than 10 years of news reporting to study medicine with the intention of returning to the front lines where he can be hands-on saving lives and alleviating the kind of suffering he once wrote about.

Here he talks about18-month-old Bahati’s struggle to survive severe malaria.

A little girl’s finger is pricked in order to test her blood for malaria at Nambia Health Center in Haut-Uele Province. Her test result is negative, but her 15-month-old sister tests positive. The number of people treated for malaria in MSF projects in DRC has increased by 250% since 2009, with a sharp rise in the first 3 months of 2012. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

A little girl’s finger is pricked in order to test her blood for malaria at Nambia Health Center in Haut-Uele Province. Her test result is negative, but her 15-month-old sister tests positive. The number of people treated for malaria in MSF projects in DRC has increased by 250% since 2009, with a sharp rise in the first 3 months of 2012. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

A Potential Time Bomb of High Infection Rates and Drug Resistant Strains of Malaria On April 25, the annual World Malaria Day, many health organizations will highlight important gains in fighting this deadly disease that claims more than one million lives every year. But despite notable progress in innovation and investment, MSF continues to see continuously high rates of malaria in several African countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MSF has observed infection rates above emergency thresholds in several zones over the last six months, which can be largely attributed to a dysfunctional surveillance system, the failure of the health system to respond to elevated levels of malaria, poor organization, and lack of diagnostic testing and drugs.DRC 2011 © Robin Meldrum A mother and child in the pediatric ward of Niangara hospital.

A Potential Time Bomb of High Infection Rates and Drug Resistant Strains of Malaria

On April 25, the annual World Malaria Day, many health organizations will highlight important gains in fighting this deadly disease that claims more than one million lives every year. But despite notable progress in innovation and investment, MSF continues to see continuously high rates of malaria in several African countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MSF has observed infection rates above emergency thresholds in several zones over the last six months, which can be largely attributed to a dysfunctional surveillance system, the failure of the health system to respond to elevated levels of malaria, poor organization, and lack of diagnostic testing and drugs.

DRC 2011 © Robin Meldrum
A mother and child in the pediatric ward of Niangara hospital.

An MSF logistician and nurse take a canoe to the next village during an emergency malaria response in DRC. Most of the villages covered in the emergency response are isolated, only accessible by water or motorbike. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

An MSF logistician and nurse take a canoe to the next village during an emergency malaria response in DRC. Most of the villages covered in the emergency response are isolated, only accessible by water or motorbike. — in Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Photo: Robin Meldrum/MSF

An 8-month-old boy, held by a relative, recovers from malaria in the pediatric ward of the MSF-run Niangara Hospital in Haut-Uele Province. MSF staff in DRC have seen a marked increase in malaria cases in six provinces over the last months. Photo by Robin Meldrum/MSF

An 8-month-old boy, held by a relative, recovers from malaria in the pediatric ward of the MSF-run Niangara Hospital in Haut-Uele Province. MSF staff in DRC have seen a marked increase in malaria cases in six provinces over the last months.

Photo by Robin Meldrum/MSF

Over the past three years, MSF teams have witnessed a rather astonishing rise in the number of malaria cases in Democratic Republic of Congo. For its part, MSF is now responding to outbreaks in six separate provinces in the east and north of the country, but a wider, more concerted effort is urgently needed to battle this potentially fatal disease that traditionally afflicts the young and the infirm. Learn more. Infographic by will owen.

Over the past three years, MSF teams have witnessed a rather astonishing rise in the number of malaria cases in Democratic Republic of Congo. For its part, MSF is now responding to outbreaks in six separate provinces in the east and north of the country, but a wider, more concerted effort is urgently needed to battle this potentially fatal disease that traditionally afflicts the young and the infirm. Learn more.

Infographic by will owen.

DRC: Civilians and Aid Workers Victims of Renewed Fighting in the Kivus Civilians and aid workers are increasingly the targets of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where armed conflicts and large troop movements have recently intensified, and where security risks have made it increasingly difficult to continue to provide medical care, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF on Wednesday. National and international stabilization forces in DRC have never been more important, but MSF questions their effectiveness given the worsening situation. “The situation is not stabilizing in Kivu,” said MSF program manager Dr. Marcela Allheimen. “It is deteriorating again, and has been deteriorating over the last several months. We are noticing renewed violence, but what is most alarming is the commonplace nature of violence on civilian populations and aid actors.”Read the whole MSF press release.Photo: DRC 2011 © Ben Milpas Children at the Mweso hospital, where MSF is continuing to work despite the threat of continuing violence

DRC: Civilians and Aid Workers Victims of Renewed Fighting in the Kivus

Civilians and aid workers are increasingly the targets of violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where armed conflicts and large troop movements have recently intensified, and where security risks have made it increasingly difficult to continue to provide medical care, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF on Wednesday.

National and international stabilization forces in DRC have never been more important, but MSF questions their effectiveness given the worsening situation.

“The situation is not stabilizing in Kivu,” said MSF program manager Dr. Marcela Allheimen. “It is deteriorating again, and has been deteriorating over the last several months. We are noticing renewed violence, but what is most alarming is the commonplace nature of violence on civilian populations and aid actors.”

Read the whole MSF press release.

Photo: DRC 2011 © Ben Milpas
Children at the Mweso hospital, where MSF is continuing to work despite the threat of continuing violence

DRC: An Alarming Surge in Malaria

MSF has recorded a three-fold increase in patients with malaria in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2009. MSF teams are seeing alarming numbers of malaria patients this year as well, and have launched an emergency response.

MSF Condemns Armed Robbery, Aid Worker Intimidation at MSF Compound in Eastern DRC The attack was one of a several incidents including a kidnapping (and subsequent release) that have threatened the safety of the organization’s staff and patients in the last week. On April 4, armed and uniformed men broke through the fence surrounding the MSF compound in Baraka in the province of South Kivu, where MSF supports a hospital and several health centers. No staff were injured in the attack. Medical services continue with a reduced number of international staff. “MSF is providing urgently needed health care to people living in eastern DRC,” said MSF’s Operations Manager Katrien Coppens. “But in order for us to continue providing essential medical services, there has to be a minimum of respect for the safety and security of those carrying out humanitarian aid work.”Photo: DRC 2010 © MSF

MSF Condemns Armed Robbery, Aid Worker Intimidation at MSF Compound in Eastern DRC

The attack was one of a several incidents including a kidnapping (and subsequent release) that have threatened the safety of the organization’s staff and patients in the last week.

On April 4, armed and uniformed men broke through the fence surrounding the MSF compound in Baraka in the province of South Kivu, where MSF supports a hospital and several health centers. No staff were injured in the attack. Medical services continue with a reduced number of international staff.

“MSF is providing urgently needed health care to people living in eastern DRC,” said MSF’s Operations Manager Katrien Coppens. “But in order for us to continue providing essential medical services, there has to be a minimum of respect for the safety and security of those carrying out humanitarian aid work.”

Photo: DRC 2010 © MSF

Two MSF Staff Members Kidnapped Then Released in DRC On the morning of Wednesday, April 4, two MSF staff members—Cedric, a nurse, and Marius, a logistician—were kidnapped near Nyanzale in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo while traveling by car. Hours later, they were released unharmed. Given the seriousness of this incident, MSF evacuated its teams working in the Nyanzale hospital and in two health centers in the area. MSF is therefore suspending some of its activities in North Kivu pending a full review of MSF’s work and practices in light of the deteriorating security situation in the province, which is having a profound impact on the population and on the ability of relief organizations to deliver humanitarian assistance.  Photo:DRC © MSF Rutshuru general hospital in North Kivu

Two MSF Staff Members Kidnapped Then Released in DRC

On the morning of Wednesday, April 4, two MSF staff members—Cedric, a nurse, and Marius, a logistician—were kidnapped near Nyanzale in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo while traveling by car.

Hours later, they were released unharmed.

Given the seriousness of this incident, MSF evacuated its teams working in the Nyanzale hospital and in two health centers in the area.

MSF is therefore suspending some of its activities in North Kivu pending a full review of MSF’s work and practices in light of the deteriorating security situation in the province, which is having a profound impact on the population and on the ability of relief organizations to deliver humanitarian assistance.  

Photo:DRC © MSF
Rutshuru general hospital in North Kivu