The rainy season began in May in the camp. It's now July and there are downpours nearly every day.
For families who fled the war in Sudan, this means that living conditions
in the camp are going to worsen.
The rains are likely to last until November.
In 2012, during the same period, poor sanitation conditions led to the spread of infectious diseases.
The mortality rate among young children was significantly above the emergency threshold.
The lessons learnt from last year were that malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory illnesses were the main killers.
In order to prevent them from spreading in the camp, MSF launched a water and sanitation program.
At the moment we are doing a vaccination campaign that's
intended to prevent primarily, but not exclusively, respiratory infections.
MSF chose the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for this campaign. This is the first time
it's been used under such precarious conditions.
Three series of injections administered over a three-month period should cover 5,000 children
less than 5 years of age.
The problem is organizing the campaign in the midst of the rainy season. Supplies were
delayed by lengthy negotiations with laboratories to obtain the vaccine at an affordable price.
This delay prompted MSF to issue a warning - access to new vaccines for children in crisis
situations must be improved.
Sebastian lives in Benzambe, north of the capital city of Bangui. Like many people,
he fled the violence that has affected his country for several months. When he came home,
he took stock of the damage.
During the recent fighting, the rebels came to our village and we fled into the bush.
When we were hiding in the forest the hospital was looted and all drugs stolen. Now we have
no place to go when we are sick.
Today, an MSF team is in the village. Sebastian thinks he has malaria so he's come to be tested.
"The test is positive -- you do have malaria."
Due to this violence that has also hit this village, the little that they had, the little
staff that there were, have also fled, so now there's no health care at all, that's
the reason that we picked this location to come and do a mobile clinic here today.
Malaria is not the only threat facing this population. The nutritional situation is worsening
and antiretroviral drugs are no longer available. These problems, among many others, have led
MSF and four other NGOs to condemn the abandonment, by the United Nations and donors, of the country's
humanitarian and health needs. That withdrawal can only worsening an already alarming crisis.
At the Sana'a detention center, Awel, an Ethiopian, tells his story.
Unemployed at home, he decided to take his chances in Saudi Arabia. His route took him
across Somaliland and Djibouti to Yemen. He was taken prisoner there and tortured by
traffickers before managing to escape.
They took me in front of the others who were there and they started torturing me. They
told me I had to call and get their money now. The same night, they hung me from my
fingers on the roof. It was very painful, really.
Most of these men have had the same horrific experience - extortion, torture and, sometimes,
rape. Those who were freed in April by the authorities have already returned home.
This has encouraged many other migrants, left on their own, to leave the country. They have
come to the Sana'a detention center, which has quickly become overcrowded.
MSF launched a mental health care program there.
They are very worried about the future, they don't know what is going to happen to them,
they don't know when they are going to be deported. They feel anxious because of the
uncertain future. Most of them don't have money because they spent it all during the
trip, so they are anxious because they don't know what to do when they come back to their
places.
Since April 4,000 migrants have already returned to their country of origin. However, authorities
estimate that 30,000 Ethiopians are taking their chances along the Saudi Arabian border,
still at the mercy of the traffickers.
Gaza, late June. Some 30 doctors have gathered at the Al Shifa hospital.
Since it is difficult for them to leave the Gaza Strip, MSF decided to organize trainings
on-site. This three-day session is devoted to intensive
care.
The discipline of intensive care medicine is rapidly evolving all around the world,
this is why this course is conducted all around the world...I believe that this course is
going to change the practice of intensive care a lot in Gaza.
The objective is to learn to intervene as effectively as possible within the first 24
hours after a seriously ill patient is admitted.
The physicians will receive a certificate from the University of Hong Kong upon completing
the training, which is recognized by major health institutions.
I hope that this course is going to be around regularly in Gaza, it's going to improve the
outcome of the patient, the care, the critical care field.
There are also long-term training needs. At Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, an MSF nurse
who specializes in intensive care works alongside the staff every day. This "bedside" training
program has been designed to meet the needs of the Gaza population.
Screening and treating HIV-positive people requires several tests.
They are complicated and must usually be performed in a laboratory in a major city, which slows
and complicates patient treatment.
To address that problem, the MSF team in Chiradzulu provides the health centers with tests that
are suited to conditions in the field.
A new machine -- SAMBA -- has just arrived. It will be installed in two centers and will
be used to measure the quantity of the virus in the blood of an HIV-positive person.
It's very important to us to have the SAMBA machine at the health center because it will
allow us to verify the effectiveness of the HIV patient's treatment and, if necessary,
confirm treatment failure. We can then begin the process of determining why the patient
is experiencing treatment failure and continue that process. Up to now, only large regional
or national laboratories could conduct these kinds of tests and the results were often
lost. In any event, those large labs have limited capacity. They can't test viral loads
for an entire country so it was important to us to have a SAMBA machine in the health
center, where the patients are.
Prevention is another aspect of the fight against AIDS. Recent studies have shown that
circumcision can help prevent infection.
Research has shown that 60 out of 100 properly circumcised men will be protected against
HIV.
MSF is donating kits to support such efforts. Here, volunteers attend an information meeting.
Those who want to be circumcised can have the procedure done afterwards.