MSF Scientific Days International 2024

On 16 May people from within and outside MSF will gather in London, joined by online participants from over 100 countries, for this annual ‘conference without borders’ showcasing medical research from fragile and conflict affected settings.

All too often the populations MSF and others work with are excluded from the benefits of research. Yet they are the ones that often need these benefits most. So speakers will consider how MSF’s research has impacted the way our projects deliver care, how knowledge gaps can be pivotal to political gatekeeping and to triggering appropriate humanitarian responses, and how identifying best practices and funding innovation are key to improving our capacity to act.

Here you can view abstracts for all scientific presentations, which focus on infectious diseases, outbreaks, vaccination, and mortality.

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Expanding access to lifesaving new TB tools

Many settings with a high burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) lack access to advanced diagnostics and to groundbreaking new treatments. The Collection linked below spotlights work by MSF and collaborators to analyze barriers, identify gaps, and accelerate the roll-out of these tools to people whose lives hang in the balance. Several reports examine price, regulatory, and patent obstacles that persist despite considerable public investment into developing many of these tools. Other authors examine critical remaining weaknesses in care pathways—especially in screening and diagnosis, and particularly in children. Several studies describe new strategies that could be part of the solution, from a pilot program in Tajikisttan that trains family caregivers to treat children with DR-TB at home, to a person-centered care model adapted to a conflict zone in Afghanistan. Lastly, initial findings demonstrate that pregnant women—another vulnerable population—can be effectively treated for DR- and multidrug-resistant TB, improving maternal outcomes without harming neonates.

Viral hepatitis is a significant cause of disease and death globally. Yet powerful new medical tools to combat hepatitis C and E still reach only a tiny fraction of people who desperately need them, especially in low-resource and emergency settings.

To mark World Hepatitis Day (July 28th) we highlight recent MSF research on making these breakthrough products more widely accessible and simpler to use.

For hepatitis C, where groundbreaking antiviral drugs can cure nearly all patients, MSF is developing comprehensive, community-based models of care that offer rapid screening, diagnosis, and treatment under one roof. In some settings programs focus on the specific needs of highly vulnerable populations, such as people living in remote areas, forcibly displaced refugees, or those co-infected with HIV or TB or who inject drugs.

Turning to prevention, MSF is exploring ways to use the Hepatitis E vaccine more effectively in areas where poor sanitation and water quality regularly lead to outbreaks. Studies in a South Sudanese camp for internally displaced people are strengthening evidence for the vaccine’s feasibility, efficacy, safety and community acceptance, especially for pregnant women and their fetuses. Another report analyzes strategies for overcoming barriers to widespread vaccine adoption.

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Expanding access to lifesaving new TB tools

World Hepatitis Day 2024

Antibiotic resistance, conflict and the Middle East

A novel personal protective equipment for filovirus outbreaks: a usability study under simulated field conditions