Doctors Without Borders
(MSF) has been grateful for the help of local communities throughout South Sudan in fighting the recent increase in malaria cases.
Because there are so few health facilities in the region, malaria patients often do not receive adequate care. These people die at home in their villages without any health care.
MSF’s goal is to eliminate preventable illness and death. Using a community-based treatment and testing program, people who reside in far-away rural regions can now receive treatment and care.
Each morning, health care workers from the local community provide various villages with important medication. They use motorbikes to access the most remote areas, even the Abyei Special Administrative Area.
“Receiving treatment in their villages has been a game changer for people who before had to walk for several hours, and sometimes days, to get to the nearest health facility,” Jessa Pontevedra,
MSF’s program manager, said. “It has allowed us to treat many more people than we had expected, and it has also significantly reduced the numbers of cases of severe malaria, as people are being treated earlier.”
