With the worrying terms of COVID-19 vaccine deals coming to light, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on governments to urgently demand transparency from pharmaceutical corporations on all licensing agreements, clinical trial costs, and data. 

MSF is also calling for suspension of monopolies on intellectual property and private deals on any COVID-19 vaccines or treatments. Funded by billions of dollars of taxpayer money globally, it is essential that these vaccines be available for those who need them at affordable costs. 

More than two million people, displaced from their homes due to violence, are now living in overcrowded camps in Idlib governorate. For those living in these camps, the risk of COVID-19 transmission is high and self-isolation is difficult, if not impossible. Regular handwashing is also a challenge, as many people rely on water collected from shared tanks.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was still grappling with the country’s largest Ebola outbreak when a new 11th outbreak took hold in June. But the current outbreak, located in the country’s west, looks quite different from its record-setting predecessor: the virus appears to be spreading more slowly, producing small clusters in isolated areas, and has a lower mortality rate. 

Nurses and midwives provide a vast range of healthcare from prevention to cure, encompassing areas such as health promotion, emergency care, childbirth, neonatal care, and surgical and medical care. With 80 per cent of primary healthcare around the world provided by nurses and midwives, the impact these medical professionals have is far-reaching.   

Here’s a few things you may not know about these essential healthcare workers and the care they provide worldwide. 

Their talents are broad, their skillsets immense, their workplaces diverse. From antenatal care to zoonotic diseases, here’s the A-to-Z on what keeps MSF’s nurses and midwives occupied around the world, and how we support them in low-resource settings. 

In Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) projects responding to the COVID-19 outbreak in Mexico and India, mental healthcare has formed an important part of our treatment for patients—and has been critical for people’s recovery from the disease.

Nurses and midwives are the backbone of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) multidisciplinary teams. They also fulfill diverse and critical roles in health promotion, patient education and community care. 

Throughout 2020, MSF is celebrating the efforts of nurses and midwives and highlighting their daily contributions in and alongside MSF projects.

Severe flooding is affecting an estimated 1.3 million people across South Sudan and Ethiopia, inundating homes and leaving many without adequate food, water or shelter. Heavy summer rains have seen many areas flooded since July, with river levels continuing to rise.

Médecins Sans Frontières field workers are familiar with responding to emergencies and navigating quickly changing circumstances. Many have now drawn on that experience as they respond to the COVID-19 outbreak within Australia, in roles ranging from direct patient care, to providing health workers with psychological support, to managing Australia’s overall medical response. 

Médecins Sans Frontières is an international medical humanitarian organisation. We provide free medical care to millions of people in more than 70 countries around the world. This humanitarian assistance is made possible by the work of our field workers including many from Australia and New Zealand. Each year, MSF Australia sends around 200 Australians and New Zealanders on overseas field assignments to provide medical-humanitarian aid.