Stories & News

In 2020, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) provided medical care for people in more than 70 countries. From responding to disease epidemics to providing healthcare in conflict zones, here are some of the most memorable stories from our patients over the last year. 

Charles, Tobeka, Din, Nandita, and baby ‘Janey’. Four of these people have struggled for their lives. One of them has lost her life. All because pharma companies put profits before people.

The conflict in Yemen, rooted in a failed political transition, has been simmering since 2011. Renewed conflict on the frontlines of Yemen’s Red Sea Coast has become some of the most intense in the country, increasing the number of civilians needing major war-trauma surgery.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders calls for an end to the indiscriminate and unacceptable attacks on civilians in Yemen.

As winter approaches in northwest Syria, the already harsh living conditions of more than two million displaced people are becoming even more difficult to manage. People living in camps across the region face the prospect of leaking tents, mud-filled streets and freezing temperatures.  

In part two of her blog series from Aweil, South Sudan, Dr Madeleine Finney-Brown meets the mother of a boy with Down syndrome, torn between the hospital and home.

Dr Madeleine Finney-Brown is an advanced paediatric trainee from Melbourne working in the MSF-run paediatrics department of Aweil Civil Hospital, Aweil, South Sudan. In the first of a three-part blog, Madeleine describes the terrible effects of cerebral malaria in young children during the malaria ‘peak’. 

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.