10-30 | Several key policy changes are urgently needed at the GAVI Alliance to help reduce the number of children not benefitting from vaccination globally (22.6 million in 2012), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said ahead of GAVI’s progress review meeting in Stockholm. “We fully support GAVI’s mission of bringing new vaccines to children in developing countries, but we think that GAVI could improve its work in a number of areas so that more children can be protected from childhood killers,” said Dr.
10-9 | As a delegation of European and Italian leaders visits the Sicilian island of Lampedusa to honour all those who tragically lost their lives trying to reach the European coast, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on members of the European Union to recognise the human cost of their repressive migration policies. “EU member states can no longer ignore the human cost of their policies,” said Freya RADDI, MSF coordinator of operations.
9-10 | Access CampaignWith the start of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations taking place in Brunei in August, MSF warned that the negotiators were moving towards finalizing a deal that in fact would restrict access to affordable medicines and constrain governments’ ability to protect the health of their citizens.
8-21 | Country’s first international symposium to tackle DR-TB crisis begins 22 August An urgent health threat in Myanmar is drawing together leading experts to explore new ways to tackle the drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) crisis. Forms of TB that cannot be treated with standard drugs are presenting at an alarming rate in the country, with an estimated 8,900 people newly infected every year. Yet only a fraction of people with the disease, 800 by the end of 2012, receive treatment. Untreated, the airborne and infectious disease is fatal.
8-8 | MSF starts first use of pneumococcal vaccine in South Sudan As Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) starts vaccinating against pneumonia in Yida refugee camp, South Sudan, the international medical humanitarian organisation warned that the global vaccination community is neglecting the roll out of new vaccines among crisis-affected children. While planning to immunise children against pneumococcal diseases in Yida camp, MSF faced multiple barriers trying to purchase newer vacc