The current crisis in Haiti is an overwhelming example of the devastation, suffering, and death that can occur when the earth's tectonic plates are on the move in an overcrowded country. It is no surprise that the destruction was so widespread. It is as expected, given our current international situation. In fact, it is hard to envision the horrific suffering that is occurring and will continue...

A series of Médecins Sans Frontières projects for irregular migrants over the past decade have consistently documented high rates of 14 physical and sexual trauma, extortion and mental illness amidst severe healthcare, food, and housing limitations. Complex interventions were needed to begin to address illness and barriers to healthcare and to help restore dignity to the most vulnerable women, ...

for humanitarian reasons in the first place, but perhaps also because of their theoretical potential to reduce infectiousness at the population level, making sex workers and other high-risk communities a priority for antiretroviral treatment access on epidemiological grounds. In this time of global financial and economic crisis, one of the strongest messages coming out of Avahan is that not foc...

The unusually severe monsoon rains which arrived in Pakistan on 22 July have added a humanitarian crisis to the security, political and economic challenges with which the country was already grappling. As the flood waters have receded, they have left behind devastation of lives, property and infrastructure. And they have also exposed with yet greater clarity Pakistan's political and institution...

Timely and accurate processing of crisis information and effective communication have been documented as critical elements of disaster relief operations. Despite the lessons learned from previous crises, preparing information for humanitarian assistance and ineffective information sharing remain a recurring and almost impossible task for relief agencies. The purpose of this paper is to propose ...

For more than a year Ukraine has been torn asunder by a bitter conflict that has triggered a growing humanitarian crisis. But amidst the chaos, the country has one important asset: human capital. “The situation is very difficult and it’s thanks to our health workers that this country’s health-care system is still running,” says Dr Tatiana Dubinina, chief medical officer at the Ukrainian health ...

Data on the elderly are rarely collected in humanitarian emergencies. During a refugee crisis in South Sudan, Médecins Sans Frontières developed a prospective mortality surveillance system collecting data for those aged ≥50 years and found that the elderly were dying at five times the rate of those aged 5-49 years. Practical and ethical issues arose. Were reported ages accurate? Since no baseli...

A recent IMF publication (Gupta et al. 2006, p. 24) notes, helpfully, that not all aid is geared to promoting economic growth. Some forms of aid, such as for roads and electricity, have obvious direct links to growth. Other forms of aid, such as for education or health, might affect growth less directly and more over the long term. But a third form of aid, such as for humanitarian relief, might...

The global burden of trauma and surgical conditions fall disproportionately on lowand middle-income countries (LMICs). 2 Inopportunely, developing countries are least equipped to provide essential surgical care. Consequently, LMICs have a significant burden of unmet surgical needs. When these fragile health systems are disrupted by conflict, a natural disaster or an epidemic the volume and qual...

Managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in crisis-affected and fragile humanitarian contexts requires special attention because primary health care systems often collapse or become compromised such settings. As a result, addressing managing these more challenging. Humanitarian organizations that intervene crisis situations are increasingly including NCD management the services they support pr...