Médecins Sans Frontières
Niger Tahoua
Agadez Zinder
Maradi
Regions where MSF has programmes Cities, towns or villages with MSF activities
Despite major improvements in its response to malnutrition, Niger struggles with chronic nutrition crises and high rates of child mortality. Every year, Niger is affected by a nutrition crisis that peaks during the ‘hunger gap’, which normally falls between May and September. Although there were good harvests in 2010, the acute malnutrition rate among children in Niger was constantly around the 10 per cent alert threshold. Most of the emergency nutrition programmes launched to respond to the 2010 crisis continued in 2011. The Ministry of Health collaborated with national and international organisations to treat some 300,000 children for severe acute malnutrition, and enrolled more than 650,000 at-risk children on supplementary feeding programmes. Insecurity and the risk of kidnapping affected relief organisations’ ability to reach some communities. However, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) improved accessibility
to treatment by decentralising care and delivering it at more sites. Working with local partners, MSF treated a total of 104,000 acutely malnourished children. Maradi region Since 2008, MSF and FORSANI (Forum Santé Niger), a medical association in Niger, have run a joint nutrition and paediatric programme in Madarounfa, in the southern Maradi region. In 2011, the programme provided outpatient treatment for severe malnutrition in five health centres. Severely malnourished children who were suffering medical complications, such as severe anaemia or pneumonia, were admitted to a therapeutic feeding centre. MSF and FORSANI also began offering supplementary rations of milk-based food at all five centres to prevent severe malnutrition. A 2010 study by Epicentre, MSF’s epidemiological research unit, indicates that appropriate supplementary feeding could lower child mortality by 50 per cent. From May, MSF and FORSANI supported the paediatric unit of Madarounfa district hospital, and staff had tended to more than 900 children by the end of the year. During the annual malaria season, MSF and FORSANI treated 750 children for the disease at a 20-bed centre in Dan Issa, south of Madarounfa. When measles broke out early in the year, 14,000 children in the area were vaccinated. In the departments of Dakoro and Guidan Roumdji, MSF carried out similar work, supporting the departmental hospitals. In Dakoro, staff worked in the maternity and paediatric departments, delivered sterilisation and laboratory services and managed an
emergency ambulance referral system. In Guidan Roumdji, MSF provided medical supplies and drugs, as well as water and sanitation support. Staff worked in the paediatric ward and operated an intensive therapeutic feeding centre. Teams also ran nutrition programmes at five health centres in Dakoro. In all, 76,500 consultations were conducted in Maradi, more than 44,000 of which were for malaria. Zinder In the neighbouring region of Zinder, MSF focused on children under five living in Zinder city – Niger’s second-largest city – and the surrounding areas. The teams have decentralised treatment, making medical care available via community health workers. They also carry out preventive and outreach activities, such as vaccinations and health screening, and provide information on health issues. Staff worked in nutrition programmes in 18 community health centres. Following a measles outbreak, 26,700 people were vaccinated against the disease. Staff also ran nutrition programmes and carried out paediatric consultations in the city of Magaria, on the border with Nigeria. Outside the city, MSF worked to strengthen services in health posts in Dan Tchao and Dungass. Altogether, MSF treated about 13,000 children for malaria, 11,000 for diarrhoea and 9,000 for respiratory infections. Tahoua and Agadez regions In Tahoua, there were very high rates of malaria compared with previous years, and MSF treated more than 43,000 people for the disease. At the height of the epidemic, over 300 people suffering from both malnutrition and malaria were being registered each week. MSF ran two nutrition programmes in the Madoua and Bouza districts of south-central Tahoua. Agadez is located on a primary migration route for people trying to reach Europe. Vulnerable individuals in need of medical assistance regularly pass through the region. MSF focused on reproductive and paediatric healthcare for temporary residents and conducted nearly 4,500 consultations.
© Julie Remy
Cholera
A child is examined at the intensive therapeutic feeding centre in Guidan Roumdji, Maradi region. 84
Niger
Between June and September, MSF helped to respond to a cholera outbreak in the capital Niamey. The team set up treatment centres, rehydration points and waste treatment systems. They also donated medicines and other supplies and trained Ministry of Health staff. At the end of 2011, MSF had 1,705 staff in Niger. MSF has been working in the country since 1985.