Medical Issues

The major earthquake that struck central Myanmar created a crisis within a crisis. It comes as a prolonged armed conflict and political crisis has eroded a health system, making access to care more difficult.

The frontline of a three-year conflict between an armed group and the army has reached a capital city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Casualties and cholera are now seriously affecting a critical humanitarian and health situation.

Chagas is not as well known as diseases such as malaria or cholera yet it affects between six and seven million people and kills up to 12,500 each year.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Roughly 80 percent of confirmed cases of COVID-19 experience a mild respiratory illness but it has a higher rate of severe complications for vulnerable people – than other viruses such as flu.

What good is a breakthrough treatment if the people who need it can’t afford it?

An obstetric fistula is a hole between the vagina and the bladder or rectum, through which urine or stool leaks continuously. They are devastating injuries resulting from complicated childbirths, affecting more than two million women worldwide.

Since its discovery in 1981, HIV/AIDS has killed more than 25 million people. HIV gradually weakens the body’s immune system, usually over a period of up to 10 years after infection.

Kala azar is the second largest parasitic killer in the world - only Malaria is more deadly. Along with Chagas disease and sleeping sickness, kala azar is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

The increase in intensity of Israeli bombing and the geographical expansion has led to massive displacement, with many families displaced several times. More than a million people are reported to be displaced in the country and more than 1,900 have already been killed, according to the authorities—surpassing the Israel-Lebanon war in 2006.

Every year, malaria kills around 660,000 people and infects more than 200 million. Ninety percent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa.

Malnutrition is one of the greatest global health challenges, and has significant impacts on millions of people around the world. Undernutrition in particular, one of three types of malnutrition, is the underlying contributing factor in nearly half of the deaths of children under five years of age.