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Dear you,
Acting fast is essential when battling the outbreak of a deadly illness. A highly contagious disease can quickly overwhelm a community—and kill within hours or days if left untreated. I saw this firsthand in 2017 while working with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to battle a deadly cholera outbreak in Yemen.
One patient I’ll never forget is Nubila. Nubila arrived at one of our cholera clinics in her third trimester of pregnancy. She was barely conscious and extremely dehydrated. We needed to act fast. We immediately began treating her, but when she went into labor the very next day, we had to move her out of the cholera-contaminated tent to a local hospital.
Thankfully, after four days in the neonatal intensive care unit, baby Ali returned to our cholera clinic to be reunited with his mother. Seeing Nubila and her son leave with smiles on their faces left an indelible mark on my heart. Her story is just one of countless examples of why we must stay prepared to act quickly when lives are on the line—especially during outbreaks of diseases like cholera.
Unfortunately, despite being predictable, preventable, and treatable, cholera cases are once again on the rise—this time in approximately 30 countries around the world.
From country to country, the contributing factors vary, from conflict to economic collapse. But the effects of the climate emergency have emerged as an important contributor to the spread of disease. Not only does extreme weather damage health infrastructure and displace millions—it also creates conditions that are conducive to the spread of water- and mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria, dengue fever, and cholera.
With your support, MSF is racing to respond to the rise of cholera in myriad ways:
In Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, we set up six cholera treatment centers (CTCs), with a total of 389 beds, since the first cases appeared on September 29. Since the end of October, MSF has treated an average of 270 patients a day in its centers, compared to about 50 a day in the first two weeks of the outbreak.
In Syria, MSF is supporting health authorities with medical care while simultaneously implementing prevention activities at the community level to limit the spread. This includes repairing local water infrastructure and distributing hygiene kits.
In Lebanon, following the country’s first cholera case in almost three decades in October, we began vaccinating people in the north and northeast of the country, where the most cases have been recorded, and treating sick patients. Our goal is to vaccinate 150,000 people in Arsal, Akkar, Tripoli, and Baalbak-Hermel.
But the one thing we all can and must do to address this crisis is work together to tackle climate change—because it’s not just a climate crisis, it’s a health crisis.
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.
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