World Hand Hygiene Day 2023

Noma, also known as cancrum oris, is a rapidly progressing life-threatening infection that affects the mouth and face. Noma is preventable and easy to treat if addressed in the early reversible stages, but most often deadly if untreated. The disease most commonly affects children who are chronically malnourished or whose immune systems are otherwise compromised. Noma affects an estimated 140,000 children annually. Noma was added to the WHO's list of Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2023.

MSF is working to discover more about noma. This collection highlights MSF's mixed methods research on treatment outcomes, burden of disease, attitudes towards the disease and other aspects of noma.

For more information on MSF's work on noma, you can also visit https://noma.msf.org/.

While Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is known mostly for providing direct medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health services, we also conduct research aimed at improving patient care and advocating for evidence-based policy and practices. To this end we conduct hundreds of research studies each year, publish extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and present our findings at scientific conferences around the world, including several annual MSF-organized events.

With the MSF Science Portal we introduce a new platform that aims to be a « one-stop shop » for content related to this work, so that users anywhere can easily find, browse, access, share and use the knowledge our research generates. Alongside frequent updates of new publications, conference materials, reports and featured content, we will continue to develop this site and to expand its range of content. To learn more about the Portal and what it offers, check out the short videos and slide presentation in this collection.