Look Who it Was Random video

VIDEO - Month in Focus - November 09

295 views · Published 2 December 2009 · 10:15 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders · 2009 · Entertainment

Watch on YouTube

This “Month in Focus” covers MSF's work throughout November 2009, including: Emergency medical care in the Philippines; distribution of winter kits to Afghan migrants living on the street of Paris; MSF’s call for sustained International financial commitment to HIV/AIDS; an alert to European governments regarding the importance of research into the neglected disease Tuberculosis; and a new publication revealing MSF’s role in medical innovation. For more information, please see the more detailed description below.------------------------------A series of typhoons and tropical storms prompted MSF to launch emergency aid programmes throughout the Philippines. Since early October, MSF has provided medical care for over 4,000 individuals, distributed essential items (such as blankets) to over 20,000 families, and built latrines and showers for evacuation centres. MSF mobile clinics are working in areas with poor access to medical care, and monitoring a Leptospirosis epidemic.In Paris, France, MSF and other organisations have distributed winter kits (including 200 sleeping bags, gloves and backpacks) to Afghan migrants living on the streets. The homeless are subjected to cold, hunger and a lack of hygiene, which puts them at risk of respiratory infections, flu and skin infections (eg. Scabies).International financial commitment for HIV/AIDS is waning after 10 years of increasingly significant mobilisation. The two key sources of funding are considering freezing, reducing or re-allocating funding, despite drug shortages. An MSF spokesperson said, “Levels of funding must be maintained, or even increased. Medical teams are just starting to see progress in the field, but only 3/10 people in need of treatment are currently receiving it.”A new MSF report highlights the fact that Europeans do not consider the fight against Tuberculosis (TB) to be a priority. The Campaign for access to essential medicines and the International Union against TB and lung disease met in Stockholm in October, with the objective of alerting governments of the importance of research in this area. Currently 1.7 million people die every year from TB, and 1.5 billion Euros are needed for new research. Current tools and treatment are out of date and often ineffective against increasingly resistant strains.A new publication reveals that MSF’s experience and innovation in the field does help medical practices to evolve. “Medical innovation in humanitarian situations” is a collaboration between doctors and sociologists, focussing on 5 diseases: cholera, meningitis, African trypanosomiasis, malaria and HIV/AIDS.This “Month in Focus” is dedicated to MSF colleagues Yahya Mosfer Alfarah and Riaz Ahmed Khalil, two MSF drivers who were killed in separate incidents last month.

More from this channel