Posts tagged cholera

Photo: A young cholera patient at an MSF facility. Haiti 2012 © Emilie Régnier Haiti: Deplorable Conditions for Cholera Patients

Photo: A young cholera patient at an MSF facility. Haiti 2012 © Emilie Régnier

Haiti: Deplorable Conditions for Cholera Patients

Photo: People line up for registration at a vaccination site. South Sudan 2013 © Corinne Baker/MSF Preventing Cholera in South Sudan’s Remote Refugee Camps MSF teams have completed a preventive cholera vaccination campaign in and around the refugee camps in Maban County, South Sudan. Hoping to prevent the spread of the potentially fatal disease, staff vaccinated 105,000 refugees in four camps and 27,500 other residents of the area. MSF launched the vaccination campaign with the cooperation of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health as part of a cholera preparedness and prevention plan. While teams have already set up and pre-stocked cholera treatment facilities in the camps, the remoteness of the area and supply challenges mean that a cholera outbreak could be disastrous. That’s what makes the added prevention provided by a vaccination campaign so crucial. “The key for preventing cholera is to ensure sufficient access to clean drinking water, and to have appropriate sanitation and hygiene facilities,” says Paul Critchley, MSF emergency coordinator in Maban County. “We are currently tackling an escalating hepatitis E outbreak in the camps, so we know that sanitation conditions here are not yet adequate. Hepatitis E is spread in similar ways to cholera, and this reinforces the need to do all we can to prevent cholera breaking out too.”

Photo: People line up for registration at a vaccination site. South Sudan 2013 © Corinne Baker/MSF

Preventing Cholera in South Sudan’s Remote Refugee Camps

MSF teams have completed a preventive cholera vaccination campaign in and around the refugee camps in Maban County, South Sudan. Hoping to prevent the spread of the potentially fatal disease, staff vaccinated 105,000 refugees in four camps and 27,500 other residents of the area.

MSF launched the vaccination campaign with the cooperation of South Sudan’s Ministry of Health as part of a cholera preparedness and prevention plan. While teams have already set up and pre-stocked cholera treatment facilities in the camps, the remoteness of the area and supply challenges mean that a cholera outbreak could be disastrous. That’s what makes the added prevention provided by a vaccination campaign so crucial.

“The key for preventing cholera is to ensure sufficient access to clean drinking water, and to have appropriate sanitation and hygiene facilities,” says Paul Critchley, MSF emergency coordinator in Maban County. “We are currently tackling an escalating hepatitis E outbreak in the camps, so we know that sanitation conditions here are not yet adequate. Hepatitis E is spread in similar ways to cholera, and this reinforces the need to do all we can to prevent cholera breaking out too.”

A Month in Focus: December 2012

Reports on treating TB in Chechnya, fighting Yaws in Congo, working with displaced civilians in DRC and South Sudan, and battling cholera in Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Photo: Due to living conditions for earthquake survivors and the general population that help enable the spread of cholera in Haiti, the disease remains a lethal threat two years after the epidemic first appeared in the county. Haiti 2012 © Mathieu Fortoul/MSF For Haitians, Cholera Remains a Major Public Health Problem It’s been two years since a cholera epidemic first swept through Haiti, infecting hundreds of thousands of people who’d never before encountered the disease. It was clear that cholera was likely to be a recurring issue in Haiti, but even today, new patients cannot be certain that they will get the treatment they need, and little has been done to improve the environmental conditions that enable the continued spread of the disease. MSF has treated 12,000 cholera patients in five cholera treatment centers since the beginning of the year. During the recent spike of new cases in May, MSF treated more than 70 percent of the total number of patients registered in Port-au-Prince. 

Photo: Due to living conditions for earthquake survivors and the general population that help enable the spread of cholera in Haiti, the disease remains a lethal threat two years after the epidemic first appeared in the county. Haiti 2012 © Mathieu Fortoul/MSF

For Haitians, Cholera Remains a Major Public Health Problem

It’s been two years since a cholera epidemic first swept through Haiti, infecting hundreds of thousands of people who’d never before encountered the disease. It was clear that cholera was likely to be a recurring issue in Haiti, but even today, new patients cannot be certain that they will get the treatment they need, and little has been done to improve the environmental conditions that enable the continued spread of the disease.

MSF has treated 12,000 cholera patients in five cholera treatment centers since the beginning of the year. During the recent spike of new cases in May, MSF treated more than 70 percent of the total number of patients registered in Port-au-Prince. 

I went to the public hospital, but they told me that they couldn’t treat me and I was sent to an MSF treatment center, where I received care.
Wilsème on receiving aid at MSF’s cholera treatment centers in Haiti.

Every year, our annual report provides us with the opportunity to explain to our supporters how we have allocated your generous donations and to give you details about the lifesaving programs we’re running in clinics, hospitals, and feeding centers all across the globe. 

In short, it gives us the opportunity to be accountable to the people who make our work possible.

View our 2011 annual report.

Fighting A Cholera Outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone

A cholera epidemic in the capitals of Guinea and Sierra Leone was declared in February. Our team has treated nearly 8,000 people in the two countries.

Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea Border The onset of the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration points in collaboration with local authorities. Cholera, which spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a punishing affliction. “I want to die,” whispers a patient in MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “I’m tired, tired of this disease.”Photo: A 10-year-old patient recovers from cholera at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea. Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett/MSF

Cholera Epidemic Escalates Along Sierra Leone and Guinea Border

The onset of the rainy season in West Africa has caused an increase in cholera cases on both sides of the border between Sierra Leone and Guinea. More than 13,000 people have been admitted to hospitals in the capital cities of Freetown and Conakry since February, when the disease was declared an epidemic. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently has more than 800 beds available to treat cholera patients and is opening additional cholera treatment centers and rehydration points in collaboration with local authorities.

Cholera, which spreads through contaminated water and flourishes in unsanitary conditions, causes days of diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach cramps, and leaves patients visibly emaciated after. It is a punishing affliction. “I want to die,” whispers a patient in MSF’s treatment center in the Mabella slum in Freetown, Sierra Leone. “I’m tired, tired of this disease.”

Photo: A 10-year-old patient recovers from cholera at Donka Cholera Treatment Center in Conakry, Guinea.
Guinea 2012 © Holly Pickett/MSF

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps. Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps.

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

Battling Cholera in Freetown, Sierra Leone Sierra Leone’s capital. Freetown, is currently struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has affected over 1,500 people and killed at least 17 to date. MSF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is already running three cholera treatment units in the city and has treated more than 500 patients. Because the number of people infected continues to grow, however, MSF plans to open two additional treatment facilities up in the next 10 days. “We are moving quickly to increase our capacity to handle all the new patients that will arrive,” says Karen Van den Brande, MSF head of mission in Sierra Leone. “Our present cholera treatment facilities are stretched to the limit with patients. The patients that we see are of all ages, so it’s not just children or already weak people that are at risk.”Photo: Cholera patients at Marcauley cholera treatment unit in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone © Florence Demeulin/MSF

Battling Cholera in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s capital. Freetown, is currently struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has affected over 1,500 people and killed at least 17 to date. MSF, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is already running three cholera treatment units in the city and has treated more than 500 patients. Because the number of people infected continues to grow, however, MSF plans to open two additional treatment facilities up in the next 10 days.

“We are moving quickly to increase our capacity to handle all the new patients that will arrive,” says Karen Van den Brande, MSF head of mission in Sierra Leone. “Our present cholera treatment facilities are stretched to the limit with patients. The patients that we see are of all ages, so it’s not just children or already weak people that are at risk.”

Photo: Cholera patients at Marcauley cholera treatment unit in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone © Florence Demeulin/MSF

Dattchina’s Story: The Only Free Burn Unit In Haiti

A mother brings her young daughter to the only free burn care unit in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which is run by MSF. Many people displaced by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti are still living in tent settlements, while others have rudimentary housing with no facilities or services. It presents the perfects conditions for fires and domestic burn accidents - the victims of which are most often children.

Voice From the Field: Tackling Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic Joan Arnan, MSF Head of Mission in Haiti, has been working in Haiti for five months, coordinating MSF’s response to the cholera epidemic that has been sweeping the country since October 2010. Here, Arnan explains the response and discusses the difficulties faced by the Haitian Ministry of Health and its international partners in responding to the epidemic. Failures in the epidemiological surveillance system make it impossible to deploy an adequate response in strategic locations, and the dearth of cholera treatment services in national health facilities—along with the withdrawal of several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) following a decrease in international funding—are hampering the national response to the epidemic. An MSF staff member educates outpatients about cholera at Léogâne hospital Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart/MSF

Voice From the Field: Tackling Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic

 Joan Arnan, MSF Head of Mission in Haiti, has been working in Haiti for five months, coordinating MSF’s response to the cholera epidemic that has been sweeping the country since October 2010. Here, Arnan explains the response and discusses the difficulties faced by the Haitian Ministry of Health and its international partners in responding to the epidemic.

Failures in the epidemiological surveillance system make it impossible to deploy an adequate response in strategic locations, and the dearth of cholera treatment services in national health facilities—along with the withdrawal of several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) following a decrease in international funding—are hampering the national response to the epidemic. An MSF staff member educates outpatients about cholera at Léogâne hospital

Haiti 2011 © Yann Libessart/MSF

Fighting in North Kivu Prevents Cholera Treatment The resumption of fighting in the Rutshuru district of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is preventing people from accessing essential care in the midst of a cholera outbreak, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today. “Some roads are blocked or unsafe and it is difficult for people to access health facilities,” said Mickael Le Paih, MSF head of mission in North Kivu. “There have been significantly less people coming to the hospital.”MSF’s efforts to treat cholera in Rutshuru have been hampered by conflict. DRC 2012 © Emily Lynch/MSF

Fighting in North Kivu Prevents Cholera Treatment

The resumption of fighting in the Rutshuru district of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is preventing people from accessing essential care in the midst of a cholera outbreak, the international medical humanitarian organization MSF said today.

“Some roads are blocked or unsafe and it is difficult for people to access health facilities,” said Mickael Le Paih, MSF head of mission in North Kivu. “There have been significantly less people coming to the hospital.”

MSF’s efforts to treat cholera in Rutshuru have been hampered by conflict.
DRC 2012 © Emily Lynch/MSF

We could continue treating children suffering from diarrhea induced malnutrition, or we could choose to treat the diarrhea at the community level before the child became malnourished.  The answer seemed obvious – and Project ORS (Oral Rehydration Salts) was conceived.
Trish is working for MSF as a community outreach nurse in Chad. On her blog she describes her experiences during Chad’s “Cholera Season.”
Vaccinating Against Cholera in Guinea More than 170,000 people in the Boffa region of Guinea recently became the first in Africa to receive a new two-dose oral vaccine for cholera, said MSF, which led the vaccination campaign. The initiative, MSF said, could spur an improved response to cholera epidemics worldwide. In collaboration with the Guinean Ministry of Health, MSF focused its response on Boffa, a coastal region near Conakry, which was considered a hotspot of the epidemic. “We were faced with an outbreak and we wanted first to protect people by vaccinating them, and to limit the spread of cholera,” said Dr. Dominique Legros, MSF’s innovation initiative manager in Geneva. “MSF is regularly involved in responding to cholera outbreaks and it is always difficult to control the disease. Because cholera evolves quickly, oral vaccination provides us with a new tool to try to contain [it]. If we can control the most active spots, we can reduce the spread of cholera.”Photo: An MSF patient takes a dose of the new oral cholera vaccine in Guinea. Guinea 2012 © David Di Lorenzo

Vaccinating Against Cholera in Guinea

More than 170,000 people in the Boffa region of Guinea recently became the first in Africa to receive a new two-dose oral vaccine for cholera, said MSF, which led the vaccination campaign.

The initiative, MSF said, could spur an improved response to cholera epidemics worldwide. In collaboration with the Guinean Ministry of Health, MSF focused its response on Boffa, a coastal region near Conakry, which was considered a hotspot of the epidemic.

“We were faced with an outbreak and we wanted first to protect people by vaccinating them, and to limit the spread of cholera,” said Dr. Dominique Legros, MSF’s innovation initiative manager in Geneva. “MSF is regularly involved in responding to cholera outbreaks and it is always difficult to control the disease. Because cholera evolves quickly, oral vaccination provides us with a new tool to try to contain [it]. If we can control the most active spots, we can reduce the spread of cholera.”

Photo: An MSF patient takes a dose of the new oral cholera vaccine in Guinea. Guinea 2012 © David Di Lorenzo