Ebola outbreak thrusts MSF into new roles

 Relief agency sees its mission expanding after leading response to West Africa epidemic.

NATURE by  Erika Check Hayden                          June 3, 2015

GENEVA -- Joanne Liu, president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is not overly concerned with diplomacy. Participating in a panel in Geneva, Switzerland, on 20 May with officials from the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO), Liberia and Sierra Leone, she propped her head on her hand, stared into space and rolled her eyes during another speaker’s remarks. When she spoke, she excoriated the world for leaving West Africa vulnerable to the largest Ebola epidemic in history. “We’re failing, guys,” she said.

Joanne Liu visiting an MSF trauma centre in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Few would contest Liu’s right to make that assertion. MSF (also known as Doctors Without Borders) was the organization that alerted the world to the scale of the Ebola epidemic. Its speedy response has both reinforced its role as the world’s caregiver in health crises and catapulted it to new prominence in the international health community...last year; in the United States, donations climbed by 50% from the previous year. “It’s a defining moment,” Liu told Nature during an interview at MSF’s headquarters in Geneva. “We have a voice that we have never had before; we need to use that very smartly.”

At a time when the WHO is lacking the funds and authority to address pressing global health needs, there is room for an organization such as MSF to take a greater role in both chronic and acute medical crises, as well as in research that enhances preparedness for those situations. But Liu insists that MSF cannot become “the world’s doctor”. “We need to be careful that we don’t spread ourselves too thin,” she says.

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http://www.nature.com/news/ebola-outbreak-thrusts-msf-into-new-roles-1.17690