To support the COVID-19 response in Europe, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has expanded activities in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France, Norway, Greece and Belgium.
Describing MSF’s COVID-19 response in Europe, Dr Christos Christou, MSF international president said:
As an emergency humanitarian organisation, MSF provides medical assistance to vulnerable people in a moment of crisis and societal disruption. Today, in Europe some of the most advanced health systems in the world are buckling under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding to epidemics is at the core of what we do – intervening when the system is overrun and where we can put our expertise in managing emergencies to good use.
MSF Activities across Europe
Helping the elderly
MSF in the nursing homes for the elders to protect guests and staff in Marche region, Italy
Elderly people are among the most vulnerable to severe infection from COVID-19. In Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain, MSF has extended activities to support nursing homes for the elderly. People living in these facilities will often live in close contact, and the homes do not usually have specialised medical equipment.
In the Marche region of Italy, MSF doctors, nurses and hygiene experts are supporting staff and local municipalities to set up infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. In Spain, MSF is advising nursing homes on case management, risk assessment and the implementation of IPC.
In Belgium, MSF is carrying out health promotion and IPC measures in nursing homes in and around Brussels. MSF has nine mobile teams, including psychological support for the staff and active case-finding to isolate residents with COVID-19. So far, they have visited 95 nursing homes in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. Furthermore, multiple webinars are organized in Dutch and French targeting the staff of the nursing homes.
Supporting migrants, refugees and the homeless
Bastien Mollo, MSF doctor, is examining people evacuated from a camp near Paris on March 24th ©Agnes Varraine-Leca/MSF
In Belgium, France and Switzerland, MSF is assisting vulnerable groups living in precarious conditions, such as the homeless or migrants. People living in overcrowded conditions, on the streets, in makeshift camps or in substandard housing are at particular risk. Many are already in poor health, often as a result of their poor living conditions. Viruses thrive in areas with poor water and sanitation. In addition, many of these marginalised groups are excluded from the formal healthcare system.
In Brussels, MSF has set up a 50-bed facility, with the capacity to increase to 150 beds. The centre provides a space in which migrants and homeless people can isolate, receive medical care and be transferred to hospital.
In Paris and surrounding areas, MSF teams are intervening in emergency shelters, helping detect those who are potentially ill with COVID-19, in the coming days the team plans to expand activities to provide consultations to people living on the street. In Geneva, MSF is providing logistical and health support for vulnerable groups living in precarious conditions, and training to staff and volunteers working with these groups.
In Germany, an MSF team is supporting the authorities in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt in a centre for asylum seekers in the city of Halberstadt, in which hundreds of inhabitants are under quarantine and where some inhabitants were earlier infected with COVID-19. Our teams are carrying out health education activities, including infection prevention and control (IPC) and providing psychological support in the centre.
Supporting hospitals and keeping healthcare workers safe
Hospital installed by MSF to treat coronavirus patients in Alcala de Henares. © Olmo Calvo / MSF
In Spain MSF has set up two health units with a capacity of more than 200 beds to support hospitals in Madrid. The units support the hospitals’ emergency services by taking moderate patient cases, so that the ER and intensive care units can focus on those who are most severely affected by COVID-19. Managed by the medical staff of the hospitals, MSF is providing logistical support and a monitoring team for each. MSF is also advising health authorities as they develop temporary units to expand hospital capacity in Madrid, Catalonia – including two hospitals in Barcelona - and in Vitoria.
In Belgium, MSF is supporting five hospitals in Hainaut and Antwerp provinces, providing technical advice and training, and is ready to increase admission capacity.
In Switzerland, MSF is supporting the Geneva University Hospital (HUG) sharing expertise to help with the management of patients that have contracted COVID-19, and with the organisation of medical teams and services in the hospital. Under the coordination of the HUG, MSF has a mobile medical team ready to provide home based care to people with COVID-19, who do not meet the criteria for hospital admission. In collaboration with the City of Geneva, MSF has made recommendations to public and private mortuary services on procedures to avoid any post-mortem transmission of the disease.
In Greece, teams are supporting isolation in Samos camp and evaluating the support needed by hospitals. In Lesbos, MSF has prepared an emergency plan for the Moria refugee camp, should the epidemic spread. In the United Kingdom, MSF staff are providing nursing and logistics support at the London COVID CARE Centre, in partnership with the University College London Hospital (UCLH) Find & Treat team. Our team also provided strategic advice and IPC support to a hospital close to Oslo, Norway in an area which is home to one of the main clusters of cases in the country.
We are providing mental health support to frontline workers in The Netherlands. This includes a short video with a highly experienced and well-known MSF clinical and health psychologist (also providing psychosocial support to MSF staff responding to the coronavirus pandemic and other emergencies) that has been widely shared in hospitals and nursing homes across the country.
Further afield
February 2020: An MSF health promotion session in Hong Kong © Shuk Lim Cheung/MSF
MSF teams are also supporting COVID-19 activities in conjunction with health authorities from Afghanistan to Libya to Nigeria to Syria to Hong Kong.
MSF has seen how this virus has crippled some of the most advanced health systems, in countries that have a social safety net where most people have access to running water and space to self-isolate. This is simply not possible for people in many of the countries where we typically work. Our greatest concern is if the virus takes hold in places with weaker health systems with vulnerable people who can’t protect themselves. International solidarity will be crucial, whilst the response to COVID-19 will have to be tailored to every setting, community, and local capacities.
“ Today, all levels of MSF are impacted, bringing new challenges, and requiring even more collaboration and creativity to find solutions. We’re adapting as quick as we can to prepare for COVID—19 in our projects around the world, despite the travel restrictions and supply shortages,” concludes Dr Christos.
Wherever we are in the world we are working to maintain healthcare activities in an increasingly challenging context of travel restrictions and constraints on the movement of goods.