3-20 | In the midst of a global cholera pandemic, that started in 1961 and has not yet ended, thousands of people remain at risk of illness and death from an entirely preventable disease.With a massive global oral cholera vaccine shortage, equating to demand exceeding up to four times global production capacity for the past two years, there is an urgent need for affected countries to adapt their existing approaches for responding to outbreaks.
12-20 | Three years into its campaign to have noma recognised as a neglected tropical disease (NTD), Médecins Sans Frontières welcomes the decision by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), to include noma in the WHO’s official list of NTDs.
9-25 | A serious diphtheria outbreak is tearing through Nigeria, where thousands of people have been infected and hundreds more have died. With low national vaccination coverage and a worldwide shortage of lifesaving antitoxin threatening to worsen the outbreak, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges the international community to immediately scale up support to improve treatment, preventive measures and contact tracing to control the outbreak’s spread.
8-4 | “About 85 per cent my camp is in ruins after Cyclone Mocha wreaked havoc here. All hut-like houses are destroyed. People who live in houses like these are in dire need of emergency aid since they have no place to stay,” says Daw Nu, MSF community health worker living in Sittwe. Daw Saw Nu’s house was battered by the heavy rains and 280km/h winds of Mocha, a category-five cyclone making landfall in Myanmar in mid-May, the largest of its kind to hit Rakhine state and the northwest of the country in over a decade.
5-24 | In many ways, Muhammadu, Mulikat and Dahiru have little in common. They were born in different corners of Nigeria (Yobe state in the northeast, Lagos in the southwest and Niger state, in the center) and grew up in different circumstances and with different dreams. But one day, when they were still children, their lives and those of their relatives changed forever because of noma.