Farhana Yesmin, a physician working with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh explains how MSF’s ‘test and treat’ campaign changes lives and brings hope to refugees living with hepatitis C.

The camps in Cox’s Bazar, The camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, are the largest refugee camps in the world, home to members of the Rohingya community who fled violence in Myanmar. Overcrowding and limited access to healthcare in the camps have created conditions that are particularly conducive to the spread of hepatitis C — a viral disease that affects the liver and kills more than 1.3 million people worldwide every year.

Since March 2025, I’ve been working on a hepatitis C project at MSF’s ‘hospital on the hill’ in Bangladesh. The rate of hepatitis C infection we have found is alarming. By August 2025, out of nearly 12,000 people screened we identified 2,136 positive cases. This is why MSF launched an intensive ‘test and treat’ campaign.

Hepatitis C is sometimes referred to as the ‘silent killer’, as it often shows no symptoms for years. Many people are simply unaware that they have it. Receiving a positive diagnosis comes as a shock to people, but it also paves the way for treatment that can save lives.

“When I found out I had hepatitis C, I panicked,” says Nur, a Rohingya refugee. “I knew nothing about this disease and didn’t know I had it because I had no symptoms, no pain, no aches, no signs at all. That’s why it came as a real shock when I was told the result of the blood test. But the good news is that I’m going to receive treatment!”

For those who have been diagnosed with hepatitis C, there is a general sense of relief that treatment is finally available locally.

In addition to case management, one of the significant improvements to our service has been the change to the age restrictions for treatment. Previously, we were unable to treat people under the age of 40. We are now able to treat people from the age of 11, which considerably broadens our scope. We also encourage screening within families, which is a positive step towards prevention on a larger scale.

The more screening we carry out, the more cases we detect, and the more deaths we can prevent. It’s a colossal undertaking, but every person treated is a life transformed.

PROVIDING ESSENTIAL HEALTHCARE IN BANGLADESH

In 2025, MSF delivered a range of medical care to Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar through three hospitals, two healthcare centres and a clinic. The ‘test and treat’ campaign for hepatitis C in the camps aims to treat 30,000 people by the end of 2026.

BANGLADESH MEDICAL FIGURES FOR 2025:

815,800

outpatient consultations

242,800

emergency room admissions

4,440

births assisted

13,700

people started on hepatitis C treatment