Click here if you are having trouble viewing this message.
Friend, when Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff in Ethiopia received an alert about an unusually high number of deaths among the isolated Mursi Tribe in the Omo Valley, we sprung into action. What the team discovered was an outbreak of kala azar or visceral leishmaniasis.
Kala azar is one of the most neglected—and deadly—diseases. MSF staff immediately set up mobile clinics to screen and treat patients who were suffering from this disease. Many of the people we treated were seeing a doctor for the first time and had never been vaccinated.
Kala azar is endemic in Ethiopia, and more than 3.2 million people in the country are vulnerable to this deadly disease. If left untreated, it has a 95 percent fatality rate. Outbreaks of kala azar must be dealt with urgently. Access to diagnosis and treatment is limited for kala azar—particularly in eastern Africa.
Since the outbreak in the Omo Valley overwhelmed the nearby Jinki Hospital, MSF set up tents to provide additional space, eventually running a dedicated kala azar ward within the facility in collaboration with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health. In less than two months, MSF teams treated 79 patients for kala azar.
Over the past 30 years, MSF has treated nearly 150,000 patients for kala azar, mainly in South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, India, and Bangladesh. And to this day, MSF remains dedicated to meeting the health needs of people with limited access to care—such as in the Omo Valley and over 70 countries around the world.
This email was sent from the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care.
You are receiving this message because [email protected] is subscribed to the UPDATES FROM THE FIELD list.
Manage Preferences Unsubscribe
Please do not email any credit card information to Doctors Without Borders as it is not a secure payment method. If you wish to make a donation, please click here.
40 Rector Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10006 | Phone: 212-679-6800
Make a donation: Toll-free at 1-888-392-0392 seven days a week Donate Online | Home Page | Privacy Policy
