KEY MEDICAL FIGURES
967,000
outpatient consultations
69,400
patients admitted to hospital
612,700
malaria cases treated
Despite the peace agreement signed by the government and armed groups in Central African Republic (CAR) in February, violence continues unabated in many parts of the country. Thousands of people live in fear, exposed to extreme violence with no access to healthcare or basic services.
Pervasive insecurity repeatedly hampered MSF’s ability to respond to people’s urgent medical needs. Nevertheless, we continued assisting local and displaced communities and launching emergency interventions.
In Bangui, we improved sexual and reproductive healthcare, to reduce sickness and death from obstetric complications, as well as from the consequences of unsafe terminations of pregnancy, the main cause of death among women at MSF-supported maternity facilities in the city.
Malaria remains the main killer of children under five in CAR, its effects often exacerbated by malnutrition and preventable diseases. Strategies to deliver care closer to people’s homes included supporting community health workers to test and treat patients with simple forms of malaria and diarrhea in their villages.
MSF supplied existing health centres with medicines, equipment, staff and technical training. We also supported hospital emergency rooms and pediatric wards, enabling the most severely ill children to obtain free specialist care.
Prevention is essential to saving lives, which is why MSF supported routine vaccination and mass vaccination campaigns.
MSF was the main organization delivering care for survivors of sexual violence in CAR. We have progressively integrated it into our programs across the country. We also launched a project called Tongolo, offering care for sexual violence, specifically adapted to male, child and adolescent patients.
HIV/AIDS is a leading cause of death among adults in CAR. Our teams worked to make treatment accessible in our projects and offered treatment and training in the university hospital. Less than half of the 110,000 people living with HIV in CAR have access to care. In 2019, when the country experienced a major stockout of antiretroviral medication, MSF provided supplies to the Ministry of Health.
