Flash flooding in parts of KwaZulu-Natal province in April caused hundreds of deaths, displaced over 40,000 people and severely damaged infrastructure, including water and sanitation services. MSF launched a substantial emergency response comprising medical teams and water, sanitation and hygiene experts. We supported mobile clinics in affected communities with medical staff and provided water storage and sanitation in shelters for displaced people. In addition, our geohydrologists implemented innovative techniques for improving water yield and quality from strategically drilled boreholes.

In the City of Tshwane, where we run a migrant health project, our teams supported outreach healthcare services for marginalised people, such as those without documentation and drug users, including referrals to health facilities.

In September 2022, after 22 years, our teams working on HIV/AIDS and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) in Khayelitsha handed all remaining activities over to authorities. We launched the project in the context of HIV/AIDS denialism at the highest levels of government, starting by working to improve methods to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease, and were soon allowed to expand our involvement to HIV treatment for people of all ages, as well as operational research. One of the project’s standout achievements was the integration of HIV and TB services in clinics. It also contributed to the improvement of DR-TB treatment and care by demonstrating that it is possible to substitute toxic injectable antibiotics with newer and more effective oral drugs.

Our project in Eshowe offered preventive treatment for TB – a medicine that reduces the risk that TB infection will progress to TB disease – through community health posts that were previously set up by MSF, adding to the existing TB, HIV and non-communicable diseases services that are already available at these conveniently located sites.