India

OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE IN INDIA
 

Our concerns

MedicalInadequate access to healthcare
Although COVID-19 cases in Mumbai have decreased sharply, inadequate healthcare services have meant that COVID-19 related deaths in India have remained very high. 

 

Our response

MedicalSupporting health authorities
We are monitoring the situation and context and preparing emergency plans in case a third wave of COVID-19 hits the city. 

Closed projects:

  • Until the hospital’s evacuation due to Cyclone Tauktae, MSF was supporting the BKC Jumbo COVID-19 hospital in Mumbai, managing 168 oxygen-supported beds in 6 wards of the 2,000-bed hospital. We also undertook community health promotion and shielding activities engaging with vulnerable people in one of the slum areas of the city

India is the world's largest democracy with over 1.3 billion people. It is a rising economic powerhouse and a nuclear-armed state, but also has considerable social, economic and environmental problems.

Médecins Sans Frontières first worked in India in 1999, responding to natural disasters, conflict, and endemic disease.

Teams operate a wide range of programs for people unable to access healthcare, including mental health support, treatment for infectious diseases, malnutrition, and sexual violence. 

According to joint estimates by UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank Group, India is home to one-third of the world’s severely acutely malnourished children.

Infectious Disease 

MSF runs a number of long-standing projects in conjunction with the state authorities, addressing existing healthcare needs and emerging public health concerns. We run mobile clinics in remote areas of the country, where even preventable, and treatable, conditions such as malaria can quickly become life-threatening on a large scale.

We provide medical and psychosocial care for people living with HIV, drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), hepatitis C, and kala azar in and around major cities such as Mumbai, Manipur and Bihar, and provide specialised care for co-infection cases. 

MSF opened a clinic providing care for hepatitis C in Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. Uttar Pradesh is one of India’s largest states, with an estimated population of more than 200 million. Within weeks of opening, staff were overwhelmed by the huge number of people in need of testing and treatment.

The latest generation of hepatitis C drugs - direct-acting antivirals - are manufactured in India and available at a much lower cost compared with other parts of the world, but they are, nevertheless, still unaffordable for millions of patients.

At the clinic, run in collaboration with state health authorities, the team has pioneered a simplified model of care to enhance adherence to treatment. This means that patient visits have been reduced to only one visit a month.

Many of the patients seeking care are thought to have been infected through poor medical practices such as unsafe blood transfusions and the use of unsterilised equipment by unqualified medical practitioners or traditional healers. Therefore, health promotion and community education plays a vital role in MSF's infection prevention initiatives.

India

Many patients must navigate the social stigma that is associated with diseases such as HIV and/or kala azar. Individuals often face isolation and ostracism from relatives and village communities. © Singh / MSF

MSF continued to provide medical and psycho-social care for patients with HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) at four projects around Mumbai, aiming to reduce the number of infections, as well as disease mortality.

MSF’s teams treat some of the sickest patients, who require the most advanced combination medications which are not available in the public sector. They are also developing patient-centred, individualised models of care, and trying to influence the country’s treatment guidelines.

In Mumbai, a city of 22 million people, around 50,000 people have TB, and 4,000 are infected with drug-resistant strains of the disease.

Transmitted through the bite of an infected sandfly, kala azar (visceral leishmaniasis) is an endemic disease that thrives in agricultural settings and is prevalent in Bihar, which accounts for 80% of national cases. MSF focuses on addressing kala azar–HIV co-infection, an emerging public health concern, which carries a greater risk of death as the diseases reinforce each other and weaken the immune system.

Domestic and Sexual Violence

Sexual and gender-based violence is a medical emergency. Survivors of sexual and gender-based violence are often reluctant to come forward due to stigma and a lack of confidentiality. Some victims have even been shamed in news headlines.

In the nation’s capital, Delhi, we provide medical and psychological care to victims of domestic and sexual violence and raise awareness about the importance of seeking timely medical and psychological care.

India

Health educators work tirelessly in the Jahangirpuri community: walking around looking for groups of men, women and children to educate them about sexual and domestic violence, devising new and innovative methods to spread awareness, and raising awareness of the services Umeed Ki Kiran Clinic provides. The priorities are encouraging victims of domestic and sexual violence to seek medical care, and trying to dismantle the community's perception of shame and taboo associated with sexual violenc, instead teaching them to care for their physical and mental health. © Nanda / MSF

The Umeed Ki Kiran (“Ray of Hope” in Hindi) clinic in Jahangirpuri, in the city’s north end, has been providing support to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence since November 2015, and has become a safe space for the vulnerable.

We work with community-based organisations, police, government protection agencies and the health ministry to highlight the clinic’s services and create an efficient referral system. We also engage the community in discussions on domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Find out more about INDIA

Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare. 

MSF worked in Angola from 1983 until 2007. Why were we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Social violence/Healthcare exclusion

MSF worked in Argentina from 2001 until 2003. Why were we there? Providing essential medicines and supplies

MSF worked in Belgium from 1987 to 2009

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion Natural disaster

Why are we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease

Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster

MSF worked in Ecuador until 2007. Why were we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease Natural disaster

Find out more about MSF's work in Egypt

Why are we there? Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/heathcare exclusion

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease

Haiti’s healthcare system remains precarious in the wake of natural disasters and ongoing political and economic crises. Ongoing disasters have led to Haiti becoming the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Why are we there? Armed conflict Social violence Healthcare exclusion Endemic/epidemic disease

An MSF team in Hong Kong opened a project at the end of January focusing on health education for vulnerable people. Community engagement is a crucial activity of any outbreak response and in Hong Kong, this focuses on groups who are less likely to have access to important medical information, such as the socio-economically disadvantaged. The team is also targeting those who are more vulnerable to developing severe disease if they are infected, such as the elderly.

MSF worked in Indonesia between 1995 and 2009 Why were we there? Natural disaster

Find out about MSF's work in Iran

Why we are there? Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster

Why are we there? Natural disasters

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Healthcare exclusion

MSF ended its operations in Liberia in 2012. Why were we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Armed conflict

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Natural disaster

Why are we there? Conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Access to healthcare

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Providing comprehensive emergency healthcare to people in remote regions of Pakistan is a priority, yet accessibility and security are a constraint for both Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and patients.

Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion

MSF worked in Rwanda from 1991 until 2007.
Why were we there? Conflict Healthcare exclusion Endemic/Epidemic disease

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why were we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Refugee assistance

Why are we there? Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion

Why were we there? Healthcare exclusion

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease

Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence Healthcare exclusion