DSpace Repository

Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene joint meeting with Médecins Sans Frontières at Manson House, London, 20 March 2003: field research in humanitarian medical programmes. Médecins Sans Frontières interventions against kala-azar in the Sudan, 1989-2003.

Show simple item record

dc.contributor Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland, Max Euweplein 40, PO Box 10014, 1001 EA Amsterdam, The Netherlands. koert_ritmeijer@amsterdam.msf.org
dc.creator Ritmeijer, K
dc.creator Davidson, R N N
dc.date 2008-02-14T11:18:21Z
dc.date.accessioned 2017-01-31T07:09:40Z
dc.date.available 2017-01-31T07:09:40Z
dc.identifier Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene joint meeting with Médecins Sans Frontières at Manson House, London, 20 March 2003: field research in humanitarian medical programmes. Médecins Sans Frontières interventions against kala-azar in the Sudan, 1989-2003., 97 (6):609-13 Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg.
dc.identifier 0035-9203
dc.identifier 16134257
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10144/18248
dc.identifier http://fieldresearch.msf.org/msf/handle/10144/18248
dc.identifier Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
dc.identifier.uri http://dspace.mediu.edu.my:8181/xmlui/handle/10144/18248
dc.description Since 1989, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has provided medical humanitarian assistance during outbreaks of visceral leishmaniasis (VL; kala-azar) in Sudan. First, in western Upper Nile in southern Sudan, where a VL epidemic occurred after the resumption of the civil war in Sudan in 1983, with an estimated 100,000 deaths. Later, MSF started interventions in eastern Upper Nile and Gedaref State. In these two endemic regions VL incidence has risen markedly since 2001, which could be the start of a new epidemic cycle. Outbreaks of VL in Sudan remain unpredictable, and access to affected populations in war-torn southern Sudan is often hampered by insecurity. Therefore, MSF takes a flexible approach, establishing treatment centres where patients can be accessed. From 1989 to 2002, MSF treated >51,000 VL cases in Sudan. Despite very basic field conditions, high cure rates of 95% are being achieved. Lack of diagnostics is a major obstacle to treatment, especially during epidemic situations. Therefore, development of simple and rapid technologies is required, allowing reliable diagnosis under field conditions. For treatment of VL there is a limited choice of effective, affordable drugs. There are strong indications of an emerging resistance to antimonials in Malakal. Introduction of combination therapies is urgently needed to prevent the further emergence and spread of resistance to antimonials, which are still the mainstay of VL treatment in eastern Africa. Experience with combination therapy with sodium stibogluconate (SSG) and paromomycin is promising, and combinations of SSg with liposomal amphotericin B and miltefosine are currently being explored.
dc.language en
dc.publisher Elsevier
dc.relation http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00359203
dc.rights Archived on this site with the kind permission of Elsevier Ltd. and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, http://www.rstmh.org/transactions.asp
dc.title Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene joint meeting with Médecins Sans Frontières at Manson House, London, 20 March 2003: field research in humanitarian medical programmes. Médecins Sans Frontières interventions against kala-azar in the Sudan, 1989-2003.


Files in this item

Files Size Format View

There are no files associated with this item.

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search DSpace


Advanced Search

Browse

My Account