Stories & News

With COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong hitting new highs, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has rapidly organised a project team to step up its response in an effort to support the current fight against the outbreak.

Following a tumultuous year which saw a military takeover, horrific violence and widespread civil disobedience, Myanmar’s public healthcare system remains in disarray. Most medical staff remain on strike, and the devastating COVID-19 outbreak has overwhelmed hospitals. 

The uneven progression of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unequal access to vaccines and treatments calls for locally tailored approaches.

Isabelle Defourny, Director of Operations for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), discusses the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to COVID-19 vaccination advocated for by the UN, and the urgent need for vaccines in low income countries.

The World Health Organization’s declaration of Omicron as a “variant of concern” shows how critical it is to lift global COVID-19 vaccination rates. With the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of abating, prioritising access to COVID-19 medical tools for everyone, everywhere is essential.

Low vaccination rates increase the likelihood of new variants, such as Omicron, appearing. If we vaccinate the world more quickly, the chance of mutations drops.

One year ago—and seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic—India and South Africa put forward the TRIPS Waiver proposal: a groundbreaking solution to lift intellectual property barriers on and ensure greater equity in access to any vaccines, tests, treatments or other medical tools needed to tackle COVID-19.  

Despite this waiver offering the chance to save millions of lives, a number of wealthy countries continue to block it.

Dr Khairil Musa, is a Sydney based emergency doctor who, in 2020, was sent as a field worker with Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF)/Doctors Without Borders to Yemen and later Iraq.

Dr Musa’s piece is an account of his time working in a COVID-19 treatment centre, run by MSF in Aden, Yemen.

After months of fighting on the outskirts of Herat in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also known as the Taliban, took control of the city on August 12. MSF is running an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (IFTC), a clinic for displaced people, and a COVID-19 treatment centre in Herat.

Imagine the difference it could make if African countries that are facing waves of COVID-19 infections didn't have to rely on imports of vaccines. How many more people in developing countries could be vaccinated if countries could produce them themselves?

Dr Salih M. Auwal is a Médecins Sans Frontières doctor and COVID-19 focal clinician working at Shinkafi clinic in Zamfara state, northwest Nigeria, where we provide care for malaria, sexual violence and other health needs.

Here, Dr Awaul explains why he and other health professionals in Nigeria urgently need global support to protect people from COVID-19, as they face the country’s third wave of infections.