Le Journal du Mois - Septembre 2014 [Médecins Sans Frontières]

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(MSF President):
Six months into

the worst Ebola epidemic in history,

the world is losing the battle to
contain it.

Leaders are failing to come to grips
with this transnational threat.

At the beginning of September, addressing
the member-states of the United Nations,

the International President of the
MSF reported on the failure

of the present strategy for
combatting Ebola.

No group, including the MSF, can handle
the explosion in the number of cases,

the infection of dozens of medical workers,

the collapse of the health systems in the affected countries.

(MSF President): Many of the UN
member states here today

have invested heavily in capabilities
for responding to biological theats.

You have a political and humanitarian responsibility to use these capabilities

in the countries affected by Ebola.

(Presenter): On the ground, the MSF
teams are overwhelmed.

Since the epidemic started, they've handled more than 1000 confirmed Ebola cases

across five treatment centers.

Every new structure that is put up, such
as this one in the Liberian, Monrovia,

has its beds filled up right away.

(Lindis Hurum): In all of the zones,
all of the districts of the city,

people are falling ill and dying every day.

They are asking for help; they don't
know what do do,

because when they call on the health
services, nobody comes for them.

The system is entirely overwhelmed
and the number of the sick is too great.

The response is totally inadequate.

(Presenter) Doctors Without Borders
state that the restrictive measures

that have been put in place,
such as enforced quarantines,

do nothing but add to the panic
and the risk of losing control.

The suspension of international flights
is also entirely counterproductive.

It complicates travel for volunteers
and weakens countries in crisis.

To halt the epidemic, we must not
punish or isolate the affected countries,

but rather increase the number
of treatment centers

to deploy more qualified personnel
and mobile laboratories,

to finally regain control of this
unprecedented epidemic.

We are obviously very happy

about Chantal's release.

It has been over a year,

since July 11, 2013, actually,

since we've had news.

It's obviously an enormous relief

for her MSF colleagues

and for the crisis team that has been mobilized

with great resources for over a year.

Chantal is doing relatively well,

as well as can be expected after 14 months in captivity.

She's exhausted, she's lost weight;

the final days of her captivity were very trying.

She succeeded in escaping by taking advantage of military maneuvers.

Three members of the team that were in Kamongo

in July, 2013 remain missing.

We keep our three colleagues in our thoughts,

and we are keeping the crisis team in place

actively searching and looking for contact,

and we hope that very soon, our three colleagues

will be able to follow Chantal's lead

and regain their freedom.

Impossible to flee

while the bombing was underway;

Impossible to return home,

now that the report of the guns has ceased.

For many residents of the Gaza Strip,

the return of calm is a relative proposition.

Still crammed together inside schools,

or with multiple families sharing an apartment,

they must sometimes live without running water or electricity.

After this war,
I believe there is no more hope.

What hope can people have after all this destruction?

All the buildings have been destroyed.

They say Gaza will need 20 years

to rebuild,

to re-establish all of its infrastructure.

Everything here has been destroyed.

The Israeli offensive "Operation Protective Edge"

has caused over 2000 deaths,

but also thousands of wounded.

The return of calm is hardly noticed inside the hospitals.

The most badly injured will need dozens of operations,

and the others need to have their bandages changed

and to receive their physical therapy.

The psychological scars,

particularly for the children,

will also need to be attended to.

Here is the Lietchuor camp at the end of August

A sea from which boxes of refugees peek out.

The ground is flat, and water stagnates on the clay soil.

These conditions combine such that this camp,

which shelters 36,000 refugees,

becomes unliveable during the rainy season.

The only remaining dry spot,

a road that crosses the camp.

Those who can survive in the camp
have found spots

along the road,

and have planted themselves there.

Others who are not able to stay,

find shelter among the area communities.

Faced with these conditions,

the Ethiopian agency in charge of refugees,

and the UN, have decided to close the camp.

But for the time being, there is no satisfactory resettlement plan.

If the government is able to identify another location,

close to Lietchuor Camp or elsewhere,

at least for the rainy season,

where all the refugees could be moved,

that would be a great relief.

Not only for these populations,

but also for the government and the NGOs

who are providing water, medical care,

and other services to the refugees.

While they wait, the MSF teams

carry on their work.

At Lietchuor, they have taken to

keeping patients dry by elevating the tents for the hospital

and the health center.

But the rains, and the poor hygiene conditions,

pose a grave threat to health and to the population.

Respiratory infections and malaria

are the primary complaints of patients.

And a Hepatitis E epidemic has been declared.

The doctors who work in the refugee camps understand

that epidemics take hold rapidly

in these sorts of conditions.

To avoid this, it's necessary to enact a of practice

that still remains uncommon:

to organize vaccination campaigns

on an emergency basis.

Refugees all across the world

require access to new vaccines

because they are all vulnerable.

We notice that for the most part,

they are not up to date on their vaccinations,

because of their displacement.

So they really need to have access to all the necessary vaccines.

The children, particularly fragile,

can die from a simple respiratory infection.

Yet there exists a vaccine, PCV vaccine,

that can protect them against one of the principal bacteria

responsible for pneumonia.

Last July, in Uganda,

10,000 infants under 2 years of age

received the PCV vaccine.

The beneficiaries: the refugees,

but also the local communities

affected by this massive influx of arrivals.

South Sudan in 2013,

Uganda today,

and soon Ethiopia,

MSF has decided to to universalize its vaccination campaigns

among displaced peoples

to protect the most vulnerable

from preventable illnesses.

But to achieve this will require

that the barriers that exist today

such as the high price of PCV vaccine,

are eliminated.

Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq,

the impact of war is felt

far outside the territory of Syria.

The refugees bring with them their wounds,

physical or psychological.

On the other side of the border posts, the MSF teams

take care of these people.

Ramda is a Jordanian city 5 km from the Syrian border.

In the surgery provided by MSF,

Roukiya, a young 14-year-old Syrian girl,

a rocket fell very close to where she was.

My mother and my neighbor were killed in the blast,

and I myself was injured,

and I was afraid I wouldn't have legs anymore.

I lost consciousness,

At Roukiya's bedside, Dr. Alouache

an Iraqi who fled his country

at the beginning of the 1990s

during the Gulf War.

When I was a refugee, I recall,

I was not able to offer medical assistance

to my own people.

MSF came to see me, and asked me

to open a clinic.

I was overwhelmed with joy.

I thought it was finally a chance for me

to give back some small portion of what I received.

In order to give 3 million refugees

a face and a voice,

MSF has launched a project:

"Beyond The War"

a day with Doctors Without Borders

in Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan,

to tell the story of their work

and let us meet their patients.

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