Posts tagged west africa

“Throughout the epidemic, I witnessed how communities were ripped apart. But it was very empowering to see how extremely dedicated all the national staff were, and fortunately other international actors eventually got involved. For the next epidemic, the world should stand ready to intervene much faster and more efficiently” -Hilde de Clerck, MSF epidemiologist 

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Photo by Martin Zinggl

August 2014, Foya, Liberia: In MSF’s Ebola management center in Foya, a transistor radio plays loud Azonto music from Ghana. All the patients listen weakly from their beds, except one. Eleven-year-old patient Mamadee performs an Azonto dance to an admiring crowd. It is hard to believe that Mamadee has Ebola. See a video of Mamadee dancing: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news-stories/video/boy-who-tricked-ebola  The response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began one year ago. Since then, more than 1,300 MSF international staff and 4,000 local staff have cared for nearly 5,000 confirmed Ebola patients. This week we are posting photo stories that encapsulate critical moments of the last 12 months.

Photo by Katy Athersuch

October 2014, Foya, Liberia: Kollie James was the 1000th survivor to be discharged from an MSF Ebola management center in West Africa. His father, Alexander, was overjoyed that his son had survived the disease, but sad about all those who had not been so lucky. “This is a great thing,” said Alexander, “but I wonder how many more people we have lost. How many have not survived? Of course, I am so happy to have Kollie still, but it’s hard not to think of all those who are no longer with us.” Read “My Son Is MSF’s 1000th Ebola Survivor”: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/liberia-my-son-msfs-1000th-ebola-survivor The response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began one year ago. Since then, more than 1,300 MSF international staff and 4,000 local staff have cared for nearly 5,000 confirmed Ebola patients. This week we are posting photo stories that encapsulate critical moments of the last 12 months.

Photo by Anna Surinyach

December 2014, Bo, Sierra Leone: Bentu Sandy contracted Ebola and survived. After being discharged from MSF’s center in Bo, she was hired by MSF as a mental health counselor to provide support to patients in the high-risk zone. “I was infected, then I was treated by MSF, so I know exactly how the patients feel,” she says. The response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began one year ago. Since then, more than 1,300 MSF international staff and 4,000 local staff have cared for nearly 5,000 confirmed Ebola patients. This week we are posting photo stories that encapsulate critical moments of the last 12 months. Read more: http://bit.ly/1xrL9T3

Photo by Fathema Murtaza

October 2014, Kailahun, Sierra Leone: Health promoter Mari Nythun Sorlien hugs Ebola survivor Beindu Fatorma as she is reunited with her husband and community. In places where no body contact is the rule, a simple hug takes on special significance as a symbolic gesture showing that an Ebola survivor is no longer infectious. The response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa began one year ago. Since then, more than 1,300 MSF international staff and 4,000 local staff have cared for nearly 5,000 confirmed Ebola patients. This week we are posting photo stories that encapsulate critical moments of the last 12 months.

Photo by Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos.

Sia Bintou spent more than 10 days in MSF’s Ebola treatment center in Guéckédou, Guinea. There were many times when the medical team thought she would not make it, but Bintou beat the disease. Here, staff congratulate her as she is discharged. Right now, Ebola patients have been identified in more than 60 locations in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. MSF is the only aid organization treating people affected by the virus.

Photo by Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos.

Teams at the treatment center at Donka hospital, in Conakry, Guinea, work through the night and 24/7. Since the outbreak in West Africa began in March, MSF has treated 470 patients—215 of them confirmed cases—in specialized treatment centers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The scale of this Ebola epidemic is unprecedented in terms of geographical distribution and the numbers of cases and deaths. There have been 528 cases and 337 deaths since the epidemic began, according to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures.

Photo:Migrants in the Gourougou are mostly young men from West Africa who say they had to leave home due to poverty and no hopes of finding a job. In Europe, they say, they have dreams of getting education and earning money to send home to their families. Morocco 2012 © Anna Surinyach

Migrants in Morocco: “We Live Like Prehistoric Men”

In northwestern Morocco, in the forests of Gourougou Mountain, several hundred African migrants are living covertly in remote makeshift camps, struggling to survive, and waiting for an opportunity to enter Europe.

They are mostly young men from West African countries who have left their homes because they had no way to make money and who have left behind family members who are reliant on them, in the hopes of sending back support.

Having gained the trust of these migrants, who hide because they are frequently targeted by the authorities, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) conducts monthly mobile medical clinics to their camps, providing primary health care, distributions, and psychological support.

Sahel: As Likely Malnutrition Crisis Looms, MSF Prepares Short- And Long-Term Responses

A food crisis has been declared in the Sahelian Band of West Africa. UNICEF has estimated that up to 15 million people in six countries in the region are living with moderate or acute food insecurity. In a region where global acute childhood malnutrition rates regularly near the warning threshold of 10 percent, any factor that further reduces access to food can tip the situation into a full-blown nutritional crisis.

Although MSF has not yet noted a significant increase in cases in most of its current nutritional programs, the organization did have to open new malnutrition treatment programs in Biltine and Yao, in Chad, where rates of acute malnutrition of 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively, have been reported. Teams are also evaluating the nutritional situation in other areas of Chad, as well as in Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal.

“It is too soon to know the extent of the expected nutritional crisis,” says Stéphane Doyon, manager of MSF’s malnutrition campaign. “Traditionally, the most difficult period is still ahead, between May and July. However, we already project that hundreds of thousands of children will suffer from acute severe malnutrition, as they do every year in this region.”

Photo: Chad 2011 © Alfons Rodriguez
An MSF staff member measures the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) of a child with severe acute malnutrition in Chad.