MYANMAR: MSF teams ready to assist after devastating earthquake
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams working in Myanmar and Thailand are safe and accounted for after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the central region near Mandalay.
Our medical humanitarian staff in Myanmar and neighbouring countries have the capacity to respond at scale to the needs of affected communities once authorities facilitate swift and unhindered access for teams to do assessments and provide medical care.
Given the scale and intensity of the earthquake, its impact on people could be devastating, particularly for those who require immediate lifesaving assistance due to trauma injuries.
We’re also concerned about those who will be vulnerable as a result of loss of shelter, loss of access to general healthcare, and loss of access to safe drinking water, which is crucial to controlling the possible spread of waterborne diseases.
The ability to deploy assessment teams and, ideally, surgical capacity, are critical in the first hours and days after any earthquake if we hope to respond with life and limb-saving surgical care for people injured.
To enable an effective response, swift access to affected areas and timely approval of essential supplies and personnel are critical.
Read more about our activities in Myanmar
Jane Rabothata
About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.
In South Africa, the organisation is recognised as one of the pioneers of providing Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) in the public sector and started the first HIV programmes in South Africa in 1999. Until today, the focus of MSF’s interventions in the country has primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and TB in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape).
In Tshwane, we run a migration project, and we offer medical and psychosocial care to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, who struggle to access public health services under South Africa’s increasingly restrictive.
Previously we offered free, high-quality, confidential medical care to survivors of SGBV in Rustenburg.
To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work:
- SMS “JOIN” to 42110 to donate R30 Once-off
- Visit https://www.msf.org.za/donate
