12-4 | Twenty years ago antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV were a rare luxury in South Africa. The rich could buy them for tens of thousands of rands in the private sector. Most had no access to treatment at all. At the time, president Thabo Mbeki and his infamous minister of health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang were fiercely opposed to providing antiretroviral treatment in the public sector. Those were terrible days.
11-27 | On November 4, Ethiopia’s prime minister ordered military action against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, following an attack on a military base. The escalating conflict is already affecting hundreds of thousands of people, and it runs the risk of destabilizing other parts of the country and the region, with potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences. On 7 November, the first wave of people from Ethiopia started to arrive in Sudan.
11-26 | Children and teenagers living with HIV are particularly vulnerable to stigmatisation and to the psychological burden of the disease, which often results in them struggling to follow anti-retroviral treatment. In Malawi, Médecins Sans Frontières’ “teen clubs” offer a safe space where younger patients have access to HIV care and follow-up, laboratory testing and psychological support, and where they can share their experience with their peers, some of whom have taken the role of mentors for the group.
10-21 | Severe flooding is affecting an estimated 800,000 people across a wide swath of South Sudan, inundating homes and leaving people without adequate food, water or shelter. Many areas have been flooded since July, while river levels are continuing to rise, worsening the crisis. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is responding by providing medical care in flood-affected areas of Greater Pibor, Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states.
9-23 | Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned about the impact of ongoing severe flooding in Greater Pibor, South Sudan, which has displaced thousands of people and worsened an already devastating humanitarian emergency. MSF is urging organisations in the area to scale up their response to prevent further disaster. “When the fighting renewed [in June 2020], we fled to the bush with our cattle,” says Martha. “Forty cows were stolen, but we still have 60 more. Then the floods came and the remaining cattle died from a disease.