Doctors Without Borders Evolves as It Forms the Vanguard in Ebola Fight

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Sat, 2014-10-11 18:35 — mike kraft

Detailed description of Médecins Sans Frontières struggle to counter Ebola

NEW YORK TIMES
By SHERI FINK, ADAM NOSSITER and JAMES KANTER. OCT. 10, 2014

The first to respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, Doctors Without Borders remains the primary international medical aid group battling the disease there. As local health systems have all but collapsed...its workers have treated the majority of patients, just as they have in previous Ebola outbreaks and some other epidemics in the developing world.

But it, too, has been overwhelmed by the scale of this disaster. In Sierra Leone, it has been strained by the caseload, though it was wary of a decision by other health and government officials on Friday to treat most patients at home because of a shortage of clinic beds. In Guinea the day before, it reported that its two treatment centers were stretched to the limit....

The Doctors Without Borders supply depot in Brussels, where masks, protective suits, medical supplies and other equipment is stored before being shipped to West Africa for the fight against Ebola. Credit Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times

While also maintaining its outposts in war zones and other danger areas, the group...is tripling its staff on the ground, opening its training center in Brussels to outsiders for the first time and offering guidance to others joining the fight.

“We decided to scale up; we decided to do things we’ve never done before,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, the international president of the group, which is also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or M.S.F.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/world/africa/doctors-without-borders-evolves-as-it-forms-the-vanguard-in-ebola-fight-.html?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

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