Posts tagged children

Chad: “The Malnutrition Situation is Dire as the Peak Season Looms” MSF is expanding its health and nutrition programs in Chad to respond to the growing malnutrition crisis in the country. MSF is currently treating malnourished children at five projects in Chad, and has dispatched emergency teams to assess whether more interventions are required. At one of MSF’s long-term projects in Am Timan, located Chad’s southeastern Salamat region, MSF is expanding its number of outreach centers from eight to twelve to respond to escalating malnutrition rates. From January though April, MSF admitted 2,478 children to ambulatory therapeutic feeding centers—almost twice as many as at the same time last year. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent were reported among children under the age of five. A combination of factors is behind these alarming numbers, including failed harvests, erratic rains, soaring food prices, and an early depletion of food stocks.An MSF doctor examines a child for malnutrition at an outreach clinic near Am Timan. Chad 2012 © Catherine Robinson/MSF

Chad: “The Malnutrition Situation is Dire as the Peak Season Looms”

MSF is expanding its health and nutrition programs in Chad to respond to the growing malnutrition crisis in the country. MSF is currently treating malnourished children at five projects in Chad, and has dispatched emergency teams to assess whether more interventions are required.

At one of MSF’s long-term projects in Am Timan, located Chad’s southeastern Salamat region, MSF is expanding its number of outreach centers from eight to twelve to respond to escalating malnutrition rates. From January though April, MSF admitted 2,478 children to ambulatory therapeutic feeding centers—almost twice as many as at the same time last year.

Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent were reported among children under the age of five. A combination of factors is behind these alarming numbers, including failed harvests, erratic rains, soaring food prices, and an early depletion of food stocks.

An MSF doctor examines a child for malnutrition at an outreach clinic near Am Timan.
Chad 2012 © Catherine Robinson/MSF

After being served numerous rounds of tea, one of the nutritional surveyors brought forth a father carrying his tiny child – a baby of 4 weeks, who had been sick with diarrhea for one week, and now looked like an emaciated bird. The father sat on the edge of the pink frilly mattress, and cried while I asked questions about the baby’s illness. The father, speaking fluent French, described how days earlier he had walked 4 hours each way with the baby in search of help from the nearest health centre. The health centre had been closed, and he had returned home with the baby.
Trish Newport is working for MSF as a community outreach nurse in Chad. This is her fifth mission for MSF. When not on mission, she lives and works as a nurse in the Yukon, Canada.

Read from her blog.
Fighting Unusually High Malnutrition Rates in Chad and Preparing for Worse As a food crisis continues to spread and levels of severe acute malnutrition continue to rise in Chad, MSF is expanding the number of emergency malnutrition treatment programs it is operating in the country. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. This year is showing signs of being worse than usual. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent have already been reported among children under the age of five.Why are there such alarming rates of malnutrition in Biltine? February is the beginning of the hunger gap in Chad, when families traditionally begin to run out of their food stocks. This year MSF found high rates of severe acute malnutrition rates among children under five, because only 46 percent of the harvest required to feed the population was harvested, which is well below the average. Many Chadians who worked in Libya also lost their jobs and returned home. Those men have moved to other parts of Chad to find work, but the salaries are much lower, so they are sending home less money.A staff member uses a MUAC to check a child for malnutrition at an MSF hospital in Chad. Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF

Fighting Unusually High Malnutrition Rates in Chad and Preparing for Worse

As a food crisis continues to spread and levels of severe acute malnutrition continue to rise in Chad, MSF is expanding the number of emergency malnutrition treatment programs it is operating in the country. Even in a normal year, Chad has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. This year is showing signs of being worse than usual. In early 2012, in some areas of the country, rates of global acute malnutrition as high as 24 percent have already been reported among children under the age of five.

Why are there such alarming rates of malnutrition in Biltine?

February is the beginning of the hunger gap in Chad, when families traditionally begin to run out of their food stocks. This year MSF found high rates of severe acute malnutrition rates among children under five, because only 46 percent of the harvest required to feed the population was harvested, which is well below the average. Many Chadians who worked in Libya also lost their jobs and returned home. Those men have moved to other parts of Chad to find work, but the salaries are much lower, so they are sending home less money.

A staff member uses a MUAC to check a child for malnutrition at an MSF hospital in Chad.

Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF

When I get to the hospital, the patient is prepared for the operating theatre, and just waiting for me to evaluate her. She is 3cm dilated – which is very early in labor – and yet her contractions have stopped. The fetal head is so high up in the pelvis that the midwife’s fingers can barely touch it – a bad sign.

Veronica Ades is an obstetrician-gynecologist on her first MSF mission in Aweil, South Sudan. She has not yet mastered the art of the pit latrine.

Read more from her blog.

Chad: Malnutrition Rates Soar

The difficult lean season in Chad has already begun, and MSF is working to treat malnutrition as quickly as possible. MSF teams screen for cases of severe malnutrition and distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food to malnourished children.

Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria In March 2010, MSF was alerted to a high number of child fatalities in Zamfara state, northern Nigeria—an estimated 400 children died. Laboratory testing later confirmed high levels of lead in the blood of the surviving children. MSF is a central player in treating lead poisoning in Zamfara state, and is responding to the acute phase of this emergency. MSF has for the moment controlled mortality, but patients with lead poisoning will require significant long-term treatment and follow-up.The root cause of the lead poisoning crisis is unsafe mining and ore processing. People who engage in mining and ore processing must be given access to facilities and programs to allow them to safely mine and process ore without exposing themselves or others to toxic lead. There are three pillars that must be implemented for an effective response to the crisis: ▲ Medical care including chelation therapy and health education ▲ Environmental remediation ▲ Safer mining practicesPhoto: A worker holds up a piece of mercury-gold amalgam at the Bagega processing site. The gold extraction process produces dangerous lead as a byproduct. Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria

In March 2010, MSF was alerted to a high number of child fatalities in Zamfara state, northern Nigeria—an estimated 400 children died. Laboratory testing later confirmed high levels of lead in the blood of the surviving children.

MSF is a central player in treating lead poisoning in Zamfara state, and is responding to the acute phase of this emergency. MSF has for the moment controlled mortality, but patients with lead poisoning will require significant long-term treatment and follow-up.

The root cause of the lead poisoning crisis is unsafe mining and ore processing. People who engage in mining and ore processing must be given access to facilities and programs to allow them to safely mine and process ore without exposing themselves or others to toxic lead.

There are three pillars that must be implemented for an effective response to the crisis:

▲ Medical care including chelation therapy and health education
▲ Environmental remediation
▲ Safer mining practices

Photo: A worker holds up a piece of mercury-gold amalgam at the Bagega processing site. The gold extraction process produces dangerous lead as a byproduct.
Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

The father has heard that foreigners come here and experiment on people. Rafiq, the first child we treated with drugs died and the mother reported to others that the drugs we gave Rafiq killed him. This leaves me deeply upset.

Dr. Kartik Chandaria is a doctor writing from Tajikistan where he is working to treat children with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. This is Kartik’s second mission as an MSF doctor. His first was in Liberia in 2007.

Check out his blog.

Malian Refugees Urgently Need International Aid Refugees from the West African country of Mali face insufficient levels of assistance in camps rife with disease and malnutrition where the looming rainy season will further complicate the deployment of aid, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today. One-hundred sixty thousand Malian refugees living in camps in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger are in urgent need of international assistance, particularly food distributions, MSF said. MSF teams working in the camps are treating children suffering from malnutrition. “Food insecurity is a threat both for the Malian refugees and for the host communities, which are already suffering from poor harvests,” said Malik Allaouna, MSF director of operations. “Only food distributions in sufficient quantity and quality will prevent children’s nutritional condition from further deteriorating.” Photo:Young Malian refugees in one of Burkina Faso’s refugee camps. Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

Malian Refugees Urgently Need International Aid

Refugees from the West African country of Mali face insufficient levels of assistance in camps rife with disease and malnutrition where the looming rainy season will further complicate the deployment of aid, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

One-hundred sixty thousand Malian refugees living in camps in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Niger are in urgent need of international assistance, particularly food distributions, MSF said. MSF teams working in the camps are treating children suffering from malnutrition.

“Food insecurity is a threat both for the Malian refugees and for the host communities, which are already suffering from poor harvests,” said Malik Allaouna, MSF director of operations. “Only food distributions in sufficient quantity and quality will prevent children’s nutritional condition from further deteriorating.”

Photo:Young Malian refugees in one of Burkina Faso’s refugee camps. Burkina Faso 2012 © Aurelie Baumel/MSF

Nigeria Lead Poisoning Crisis—Now Is the Time for ActionNigerian Government Must Ensure Clean Up of Affected Area, Along With Necessary Medical Care and Safer Mining Practices The Nigerian government must commit significant resources to respond to a lead poisoning epidemic in Zamfara State, which has sickened thousands of children since 2010, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF and other delegates at an international conference on the epidemic said today. Decision-makers from the Nigerian government and the ministers of mines, environment, and health were not present at the International Lead Poisoning Conference, held May 9–10 in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. No concrete action by the Nigerian federal government was announced. “There has been plenty of talk, but now is the time for action,” said Ivan Gayton, MSF country representative in Nigeria. “MSF will consider this conference to be a success when all of the poisoned children are living in a safe environment and receiving treatment.”Photo: A 10-year-old worker at the gold processing site in Bagega Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

Nigeria Lead Poisoning Crisis—Now Is the Time for Action

Nigerian Government Must Ensure Clean Up of Affected Area, Along With Necessary Medical Care and Safer Mining Practices

The Nigerian government must commit significant resources to respond to a lead poisoning epidemic in Zamfara State, which has sickened thousands of children since 2010, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF and other delegates at an international conference on the epidemic said today.

Decision-makers from the Nigerian government and the ministers of mines, environment, and health were not present at the International Lead Poisoning Conference, held May 9–10 in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. No concrete action by the Nigerian federal government was announced.

“There has been plenty of talk, but now is the time for action,” said Ivan Gayton, MSF country representative in Nigeria. “MSF will consider this conference to be a success when all of the poisoned children are living in a safe environment and receiving treatment.”

Photo: A 10-year-old worker at the gold processing site in Bagega
Nigeria 2012 © Olga Overbeek/MSF

Performing Reconstructive Surgery in the Gaza Strip My name is Mateja Stare. I’m 38 and I am from Slovenia. In Ljubljana, the capital, I work in the country’s largest hospital. I am an operating room nurse. I’ve just come back from the Gaza Strip, where I spent a month on mission with MSF. To say that you want “to help people in need” can sound a little superficial, and even frivolous, but it’s also true. I really believe that after you’ve organized your life and everything is going well, the time comes when you need to share your expertise and your experience with other people—with people who haven’t had the same luck. So why not join up with a humanitarian organization? I worked as the operating room supervising nurse in Gaza. I managed, directed, trained, evaluated, coordinated, organized, and planned everything in coordination with the surgical activities. We worked in an MSF field hospital, in tents set up in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, a city 20 kilometers south of Gaza City, where MSF has its office and house. Because of the events, we were only able to operate during for four days of that month-long mission, but we decided to do the maximum number of operations per day. There are posters hanging all across the Gaza Strip with information about this program inviting potential patients to consult our teams. The day before the surgeries began, the surgeons—both Palestinian and expatriate—carefully examined 200 patients. In the end, we operated on 25 people and dressed the wounds of two additional sedated patients. Read the rest of Mateja Stare’s account from the his time in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Palestinian Territories 2012 © Mateja Stare/MSF An MSF staff member tends to a young burn victim.

Performing Reconstructive Surgery in the Gaza Strip

My name is Mateja Stare. I’m 38 and I am from Slovenia. In Ljubljana, the capital, I work in the country’s largest hospital. I am an operating room nurse. I’ve just come back from the Gaza Strip, where I spent a month on mission with MSF.

To say that you want “to help people in need” can sound a little superficial, and even frivolous, but it’s also true. I really believe that after you’ve organized your life and everything is going well, the time comes when you need to share your expertise and your experience with other people—with people who haven’t had the same luck. So why not join up with a humanitarian organization?

I worked as the operating room supervising nurse in Gaza. I managed, directed, trained, evaluated, coordinated, organized, and planned everything in coordination with the surgical activities. We worked in an MSF field hospital, in tents set up in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, a city 20 kilometers south of Gaza City, where MSF has its office and house.

Because of the events, we were only able to operate during for four days of that month-long mission, but we decided to do the maximum number of operations per day. There are posters hanging all across the Gaza Strip with information about this program inviting potential patients to consult our teams. The day before the surgeries began, the surgeons—both Palestinian and expatriate—carefully examined 200 patients. In the end, we operated on 25 people and dressed the wounds of two additional sedated patients.

Read the rest of Mateja Stare’s account from the his time in the Gaza Strip.

Photo: Palestinian Territories 2012 © Mateja Stare/MSF An MSF staff member tends to a young burn victim.

I immediately transferred him from the Feeding Program to the ICU and started our most aggressive Kala Azar treatment. He was so sick. It was questionable if it was possible to bring him back from the brink. But slowly, and with a few terrifying setbacks, he sat up, he ate, he smiled and then he walked.
Canadian Physician Lorna Adams writes about the many challenges she faced working in MSF clinics in South Sudan.
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.

MSF health workers are seeing a 250 percent increase in the number of patients with malaria over the last three years in Democratic Republic of Congo and are now responding to outbreaks in six provinces.

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.