Medicine and public health

Our survey bears something of a resemblance to a study carried out by Vanja Kovacic in Homa Bay, Kenya, in which she investigated patients’ disease coping mechanisms and their “dependence on medical institutions”.

Three years after it occurred, Haiti's cholera epidemic is still in the news.

In this chronicle "Alternatives Internationales", Rony Brauman discusses the return of using community health workers as primary access points for healthcare, in the recommendations of the WHO and practices of some governments.

Epidemiological studies estimate that nearly nine million people were suffering from active tuberculosis (TB) in 2010, causing upwards of one and a half million deaths. More than 90% of these deaths took place in low- or middle-income countries, thus reinforcing an old idea that TB and poverty are strongly linked.

This article is about humanitarian exoticism and culturalist convictions: those to which members of NGOs currently adhere.

Two operational situations have recently caused Médecins Sans Frontières to confront the question of torture and the instrumentalisation of medicine by those who practise it.

Two scientific studies published last year confirmed the origin of the cholera epidemic that struck Haiti in October 2010. It was indeed caused by massive amounts of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae in the Artibonite river delta, originating from the sewage in the Minustah soldiers' camp.

In "Wartime rapes: men, too", I discussed an article, "The rape of men", by Will Storr published in The Observer on 17 July 2011. 

It seemed appropriate to assemble these texts now, at a time when the history of our AIDS missions is compelling us to formulate new goals. 

Since the beginning of the 2000s, a number of English-language researchers have regularly asked the following question: why do international aid organisations pay so little attention to rapes of men and boys committed during armed conflicts?

Medical Innovations in Humanitarian Situations explores how the particular style of humanitarian action practiced by MSF has stayed in line with the standards in scientifically advanced countries while also leading to significant improvements in the medical care delivered to people in crisis. 

For the past several months, news about food shortages and famines affecting large segments of the East African population have been fueling donation appeals from major public and private aid organizations.