In 2015, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) carried out over 8.5 million outpatient consultations, treated more than 2 million cases of malaria and vaccinated 1.5 million people against measles.
We worked in 446 projects, providing emergency medical treatment to victims of violence, treating people with HIV, tuberculosis, and cholera, helping mothers deliver their babies, and providing mental health care.
ATTACKS ON HEALTHCARE
In many places in the world, our medical work is done in war zones. MSF facilities and supported facilities were destroyed in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Ukraine.
We are still feeling the shockwaves of the attack on the MSF Kunduz trauma centre in Afghanistan. In October, 14 staff, 24 patients and 4 patient caretakers lost their lives in a US airstrike.
We lost many colleagues, …. the repercussions of attacks on medical facilities are wide-reaching. The destruction leaves thousands of civilians deprived of essential medical care.
On screen: Our thoughts remain with friends and families of those who died this year in attacks in South Sudan, during the bombing of MSF-supported facilities in Syria and in the accidents in Nepal, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
In Syria, after 5 years of war, at least 1.5 million people are trapped without humanitarian aid, healthcare or medical evacuation. In 2015 alone, 94 attacks hit 63 MSF-supported medical facilities.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
2015 saw the biggest displacement of people since the Second World War.
In the Lake Chad region in western Africa, violence caused 2.5 million people in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria flee their homes.
We deployed medical teams to the four countries– supporting people in refugee camps and host communities, yet some regions are still inaccessible.
By July, 3,000 Burundians were arriving in Tanzania every week, escaping election-related violence. Our teams provide medical care.
Just over a million people risked their lives to reach Europe in 2015, and in the month of April alone over 1,300 people died or went missing at sea.
When the Mare Nostrum rescue-at-sea operation was discontinued, MSF decided that preventing thousands of people from drowning had become a humanitarian imperative. Over the course of the year our vessels in the Mediterranean Sea assisted over 23,000 people
At Europe’s entry points in Italy and Greece and along the ‘migration route’ through the Balkans, we worked in refugee settlements and mobile clinics, offering shelter and medical care.
EPIDEMICS & OUTBREAKS
In West Africa, as the number of Ebola patients was reducing, MSF began providing medical care for survivors while working on re-establishing regular healthcare, such as maternity wards.
Our teams in the three most affected countries supported clinical research for treatments, diagnostics and vaccines in an effort to control the epidemic and avoid new outbreaks.
However, Ebola is not the only disease threatening populations. Measles, meningitis and cholera, for example, are common in places where people are forced to live in poor sanitary conditions and vaccination coverage is low.
At the Democratic Republic of Congo we vaccinate over 300,000 children against measles.
THANK YOU
MSF is constantly striving to provide assistance to those who need it most.
In 2015, over 34,000 MSF staff worked in 69 countries all over the world. Without their dedication and the support of our donors, we couldn’t provide lifesaving medical care.
We want to take this opportunity to thank you.
For more information visit https://www.msf.ca/en/article/interna...
