Inadequate access to healthcare
The dedicated COVID-19 ward in the Rita Flynn care centre in Port Moresby has closed due to decreasing admissions. However, many people testing positive are asymptomatic and do not seek medical care due to a lack of facilities and education about COVID-19.
Rapid transmission
Confirmed infections of COVID-19 have increased drastically since early March.
Supporting health authorities
MSF is still working with the Rita Flynn Hospital in Port Moresby by providing a lab technician and cartridges to analyse samples of the PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 infections.
Mental health support
MSF is providing counselling sessions to support patients in the community struggling with the stigma surrounding a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Equipping healthcare staff
MSF recruited and trained a new team of healthcare staff who worked in the dedicated COVID-19 ward in the Rita Flynn care centre in Port Moresby before its closure.
Community education
We are providing patient education to combat COVID-19 misinformation in the community.
With some 836 dialects spoken, around 12 percent of all the world’s languages can be found in Papua New Guinea.
In Papua New Guinea, MSF focuses on expanding access to care and improving adherence to treatment for patients with tuberculosis (TB), and providing assistance for victims of sexual and gender-based violence.
Tuberculosis is a major public health emergency, with thousands of new cases emerging every year. It is the fourth biggest cause of death in hospital admissions, and the principal cause of mortality among HIV/AIDS patients.
In collaboration with the national TB programme, our team has been scaling up the capacities for screening, diagnosis, treatment initiation and follow-up in Port Moresby’s Gerehu hospital. Mobile teams work in the community to improve patient adherence to treatment.
The adherence to treatment among patients in PNG is low. This is due to difficulty in accessing remote areas and a lack of an effective follow-up system.
In collaboration with the provincial authorities, we are continuing to develop a decentralised model of care so that people do not need to travel to a medical facility as frequently. For example, MSF runs a TB clinic once a month in the remote village of Kukipi, screening people for TB and providing medications for TB patients. © McNamara / MSF
Family and sexual violence are clearly widespread and destructive in Papua New Guinea. Patients face multiple obstacles for obtaining essential medical and psychological care, and they face severely limited options for accessing the legal, social and protection assistance they require.
A culture of impunity, and a continuing reliance on traditional forms of justice to solve serious family and sexual violence cases. Survivors become ‘double victims’ – suffering first from brutal attacks, and then from failures in service provision and in the protection system.
There is simply not enough comprehensive medical and psychosocial care for survivors of family and sexual violence. There is also no effective referral pathway to connect them to assistance beyond immediate medical care, particularly in rural areas without hospitals, safe houses or an effective police presence.
MSF-run Family Support Centres developed a model of care that offers five essential services to all family and sexual violence survivors in a single session. This package of care ensures that integrated medical and psychosocial assistance is provided as soon as possible, establishing a ‘one-stop shop’ so that victims of violence are not forced to move back and forth between different service providers. © Beiber / MSF
The Return to Abuser report was launched in 2016, exposing the gaps in services and systems across Papua New Guinea that keep women and girls trapped in cycles of severe domestic violence and sexual abuse.
MSF projects aimed to provide free, confidential and integrated care for victims and survivors, to meet their medical and psychological needs, and to facilitate access to vital services. MSF completed the handover of sexual and domestic violence treatment projects to PNG’s provincial health authorities in 2016.
Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare.
MSF worked in Angola from 1983 until 2007. Why were we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Social violence/Healthcare exclusion
MSF worked in Argentina from 2001 until 2003. Why were we there? Providing essential medicines and supplies
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
MSF worked in Ecuador until 2007. Why were we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease Natural disaster
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/heathcare exclusion
Haiti’s healthcare system remains precarious in the wake of natural disasters and ongoing political and economic crises. Ongoing disasters have led to Haiti becoming the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Social violence Healthcare exclusion Endemic/epidemic disease
An MSF team in Hong Kong opened a project at the end of January focusing on health education for vulnerable people. Community engagement is a crucial activity of any outbreak response and in Hong Kong, this focuses on groups who are less likely to have access to important medical information, such as the socio-economically disadvantaged. The team is also targeting those who are more vulnerable to developing severe disease if they are infected, such as the elderly.
MSF worked in Indonesia between 1995 and 2009 Why were we there? Natural disaster
MSF ended its operations in Liberia in 2012. Why were we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Providing comprehensive emergency healthcare to people in remote regions of Pakistan is a priority, yet accessibility and security are a constraint for both Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and patients.
MSF worked in Rwanda from 1991 until 2007.
Why were we there? Conflict Healthcare exclusion Endemic/Epidemic disease
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence Healthcare exclusion
