Posted on 24 September, 2012

Makeshift Hospital in Syria

Conflict in Syria has made it difficult for the wounded to access health treatment. See how MSF doctors, in cooperation with an association of Syrian doctors, turned a house in into a makeshift hospital. They have been treating patients there since June.

When I examined Francoise, she was skinny even by local standards, with arms and legs like sticks, and thin sticks at that. She stood up and her belly protruded like a pregnant woman’s. The mass was in her mid left torso. I could feel its texture through her tense skin and thinned abdominal wall; it was hard as a rock, rough and knobby in texture. It felt like a cancer.
Without hi-tech scanners, David is forced to rely on his own judgement when a nine-year-old girl enters the MSF clinic with a large tumor in her abdomen. Please leave your questions and comments for David in the comments box below his blog post.
Photo: Patients queue in Moïssala District’s Bouna health zone, where MSF has been employing seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). Chad 2012 © Estrella Lasry Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention: “A Powerful Weapon in the Fight Against Malaria” A...

Photo: Patients queue in Moïssala District’s Bouna health zone, where MSF has been employing seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC). Chad 2012 © Estrella Lasry

Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention: “A Powerful Weapon in the Fight Against Malaria”

A large-scale malaria prevention program, consisting of intermittent distributions of anti-malaria medicines, appears to be drastically reducing the number of new cases of the disease among young children during peak transmission season.

Dr. Estrella Lasry, an MSF Tropical Medicine Adviser, says “these are encouraging results, and we now have to measure their impact in collaboration with research institutes and epidemiologists.” Read more from the interview with Dr. Lasry.