Access to healthcare

Not everything strikes without warning; some disasters are slow. They unfold over decades as a disease affects a population, instability undermines the health system or people are actively excluded from receiving healthcare.

After a rapid emergency subsides people can also find it difficult to access healthcare as the area struggles to recover, the government is overwhelmed by the scale of the problems or new health problems are sparked, such as cholera outbreaks when clean water supplies are disrupted. In these cases, MSF works to give people access to health care and to tackle diseases that need long-term treatment, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and neglected tropical diseases like sleeping sickness.