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

TELL CONGRESS TO IMPROVE FOOD AID FOR MALNOURISHED CHILDREN

Right now, the US Congress is considering changes to the Farm Bill, the law that dictates what kind of food aid assistance the US sends overseas. With better nutrition standards, US food aid could save more children suffering from malnutrition.

TAKE ACTION! SIGN THE PETITION!

photo: Burkina Faso © Jessica Dimmock

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 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

In Chad, Diseases are Spreading as Food Supplies Dwindle

Food and water shortages in Chad are exacerbating malnutrition and contributing to the spread of deadly diseases like measles and meningitis.

Photo: MSF staff examine a young malnutrition patient in Chad’s Yao district. (Chad 2012 © Andrea Bussotti/MSF)

MSF Blogs: Yin A Mat Po? (Are You Happy?)

The woman came to us with no living children. She had been pregnant twice before, but both pregnancies resulted in stillbirths. In the first pregnancy, she had labored for days, and the baby died during labor, but delivered vaginally. In the second pregnancy, she had pushed and pushed, but the baby did not deliver. A C-section was done, but the baby died anyway.

I cannot imagine what that must feel like. In the United States, a stillbirth at term is a huge event. Privacy is paramount. A subtle sign is placed on the patient’s door so that the staff knows not to enter unnecessarily. A sympathetic nurse is chosen, one who will comfort the patient. Aggressive pain control is offered, because pain can only make grief worse. And the woman carries that loss with her for the rest of her life.

In South Sudan, it is unusual for a woman not to have lost at least one child. They die in childbirth, or they die later of malnutrition, malaria, infection, unexplained illness. I have seen women who have delivered seven children, only to have three of them die; or delivered four children but having only one living child. When a woman comes to us, the first question asked is “How many children have you had?” The second question is, “How many are alive?”

Read the rest of the blog from Veronica Ades here.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Lisa Jones MSF OB-GYN Veronica Ades examines a patient.

Emergency Response Scaled Up as Violence Continues in South Sudan

Tensions and hostilities continue unabated between South Sudan and its northern neighbor Sudan, and MSF is scaling up its emergency response by treating people injured in the latest violence, giving material and staff support to local clinics and hospitals, and providing relief to people displaced by the fighting.

MSF currently provides life-saving surgery in Aweil and Agok for patients wounded in the recent violence. The organization also reinforced its surgical response capacity in case of a general degradation of the situation.

MSF has also donated medicines and medical supplies to local hospitals in Abiemnom and Bentiu in Unity State, both of which have received high numbers of wounded from the recent clashes. Two of MSF’s medical staff have been temporarily seconded to support the Bentiu hospital.

Photo: South Sudan 2012 © Robin Meldrum/MSF Refugees from Blue Nile State in Jamam refugee camp

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.

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

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.

For First Time in Africa, MSF Responds to Cholera Outbreak in Guinea With Mass Vaccination Campaign

After a cholera epidemic broke out in Guinea, MSF began a mass vaccination campaign, the first time the organization has done so in Africa. At present, teams are vaccinating more than 150,000 people in the Boffa region, near the capital of Conakry, using an oral vaccine designed to protect those who take it from contracting the disease. The first two phases of this campaign began on April 18.

“The epidemic in Guinea was declared in February and Boffa Prefecture is currently where we are seeing the largest active outbreak,” said Charles Gaudry, head of mission for MSF in Guinea. “Since the beginning of the epidemic, 152 cases of cholera and six deaths have been reported. We aim to vaccinate around 155,000 people.”

Photo: Guinea 2012 © MSF
MSF staff delivering the cholera vaccine in Boffa Prefecture

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