Access to medicines
About 200 000 deaths from malaria each year could be averted if African governments follow new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, soon to be released, and switch from the far less effective medication quinine to artesunate, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
MSF campaigns to challenge the high cost of existing medicines and the absence of treatment for many of the diseases affecting our patients.
Today, one third of the world's population lacks access to essential medicines. In the poorest parts of Africa and Asia this figure rises to half of the population. Too often, MSF cannot treat patients because the medicines are too expensive or they are no longer produced. Sometimes, the only drugs we have are highly toxic or ineffective and nobody is looking for a better cure.
MSF is advocating for a combination of policies to lower drug prices on a sustainable basis. These strategies include encouraging generic competition, voluntary discounts on branded drugs, global...
30 April 2012
XDR-TB survivor and peer counselor, Xoliswa Hermanus, helps a family member fit a mask to prevent TB infection during a home visit and group counseling session. Her mother, Jonas Cikizwa, is a woman infected with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), HIV and diabetes. Photo: Jose Cendon.
01 April 2012
Tsilana, an MSF nurse, prepares an injected TB drug for Jonas Cikizwa, a woman infected with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), HIV and diabetes. Photo: Jose Cendon.
14 March 2012
a 38 year old semi-literate woman living in Mumbai. She has been living with HIV and multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) for the past 5 years. Photo: Bithin Das
05 December 2011
The womens ward at the Homa Bay District Hospital in Western Kenya.
21 December 2011
A list of "Ten Stories that Mattered in Access to Medicines in 2011" was released today by the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The list looks at developments in 2011 that had an impact—whether positive or negative—on people’s ability to access needed drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines in developing countries.
Download the report
Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
For the diseases our medical teams encounter every day in places where we work, 2011 was a year of both critical progress and dangerous backsliding,” said Dr. Tido von Schoen-...
20 December 2011
Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011
17 November 2011
Palestinian woman and children provided with medicines from MSF
06 October 2011
INTERVALO! teams
