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Burundi

In Burundi, MSF continued to run malaria prevention and care activities, while responding to epidemics and unknown diseases, and offering high-quality care for victims of trauma in Bujumbura.

The landlocked East African country of Burundi is one of the world’s poorest nations.

Since independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi’s 10.5 million people have been plagued by civil war. Tensions still exist between the usually-dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority. 

Due to current unrest in the country, thousands of Burundians have fled across the border to Tanzania. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is helping tens of thousands of these refugees in the Nyarugusu and Nduta camps.

MSF first worked in Burundi in 1992. Our work in the country has focused on providing responses to endemic and epidemic diseases, social violence and healthcare exclusion.
 

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MSF's work in Burundi: 2021

In Burundi, Médecins Sans Frontières supported the provision of trauma and emergency care, while continuing to fight malaria, cholera and neglected diseases.

In 2021, we completed the handover of our activities at L’Arche de Kigobe, a private trauma centre in Bujumbura that we had been managing since 2015, and switched our focus to supporting Prince Regent Charles Hospital, a large public health facility in the city, to treat patients with severe and moderate trauma. As well as training medical teams, we donated medical supplies, carried out rehabilitation work and offered financial assistance.

This support came into play when armed clashes broke out across the city in May, September and December, and our staff helped to provide emergency care at the hospital to the large influxes of patients wounded in grenade attacks.

In November, when several suspected cases of cholera were reported in Cibitoke province, we sent a team to support the local cholera treatment centre that we had set up two years earlier. A few weeks later, a massive fire destroyed large parts of cirrhosis, a complication of the disease. If they do, they are referred to the district hospital. Otherwise, the nurses initiate treatment with DAAs at the health centre. The success of this simplified model of care demonstrated that it could be implemented at primary level across the country, and it has now been adopted into the Ministry of Health’s clinical guidelines. In five years, more than 19,000 patients have been treated for hepatitis C in Cambodia, thanks to this new treatment and model of care. MSF will remain engaged beyond 2021 with the authorities within a coalition of organisations called the Hepatitis C PACT, which aims to expand access to testing and treatment for hepatitis C in Cambodia and other low- and middle-income countries. of Gitega’s central prison and our teams helped Gitega’s general hospital to provide emergency care for survivors, many of whom had severe burns.

Since late 2019, we have been seeing large numbers of patients with a disease causing lower-limb ulcers in Muyinga province. We are working to improve early detection and care in health centres and at community level, while also pursuing medical research to better understand the nature, causes and transmission mode of this neglected tropical disease. One of our main focuses in Burundi is tackling malaria, the leading cause of death in the country. In addition to providing treatment, we collaborate with the health authorities to implement measures to reduce the incidence of the disease. In Kinyinya and Ryansoro districts, we supported malaria care in health facilities and conducted anti-mosquito indoor residual spraying campaigns. Close to 100,000 households were treated during these campaigns, protecting half a million people for up to nine months. 

MSF’s work in Burundi: 2020

As in 2019, our teams implemented a massive malaria prevention campaign in Kinyinya district, which involved spraying over 67,000 houses with insecticide to kill mosquitoes, thereby offering inhabitants up to nine months of protection against the disease. MSF also improved standards for malaria patients in 17 medical facilities and ensured that they received treatment free of charge.

In Bujumbura, our 68-bed trauma facility l’Arche de Kigobe offered emergency care for patients suffering from moderate and severe trauma, mostly caused by road traffic accidents. We supported care for people with simple trauma injuries in other health centres and district hospitals, and started to hand over patients with moderate trauma to Kamenge University Hospital Centre. In order to facilitate the handover of our activities at l’Arche de Kigobe in February 2021, we entered into a partnership with Prince Régent Charles Hospital, aimed at reinforcing moderate and severe trauma case management through the provision of medical training, donations and financial support.

In January 2020, following the notification of hundreds – and eventually thousands – of patients with lower-limb ulcers in Muyinga province, we sent a team to offer medical care in the Giteranyi health district. As little is known about the nature or cause of this disease, which mostly affects children living in precarious conditions, we are also supporting environmental, laboratory and vector control surveys.

In addition to these projects, our teams responded to several emergencies in the country; for example, providing treatment during a measles outbreak in Cibitoke province, and assisting victims of floods around Gatumba. To help with COVID-19 prevention activities, we provided training on triage and infection control in the MSF-supported facilities in Bujumbura, Muyinga, as well as in Kinyinya, along the border with Tanzania.

find out more in our international activity report >

 

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