Abu Fadel, Hassan, and Iman are three of the 2.7 million displaced people currently living in Idlib in northwest Syria. Idlib, the last rebel stronghold, has become home to a population of people left shattered and impoverished after nine years of war. Abu Fadel, Hassan and Iman recount similar stories of everyday life in what has become an open-air prison.

Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, is also one of the most populated. As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India continues to rise, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is focused on ensuring everyone has access to treatment, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds in Bihar.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has now reported more than 6,000 coronavirus cases. Already struggling to contain two other outbreaks—a severe measles outbreak and the second largest known outbreak of Ebola—the addition of COVID-19 is creating significant strain for the country’s healthcare system. 

Brazil’s COVID-19 pandemic has spread to its most vulnerable communities—residents of slums, the homeless, and indigenous and minority groups—causing the death toll to skyrocket in a country where leadership still debates the very existence of the virus.

How are refugees and other displaced people being impacted by, and enduring, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and how is Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) responding in these communities?

Around the world, governments fund critically important medical research and development using public money — including to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Publicly funded research has led to dramatic healthcare innovations, but unfortunately, most countries rarely demand that the resulting health innovations be safeguarded for public health, or be made affordable and accessible to those who need them most.

With most patients arriving at the COVID-19 treatment centre only once their symptoms have become severe, the healthcare staff remaining face a challenging task in bringing the outbreak under control.

Nine years of conflict in Syria have left the country with a broken health system. As cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) rise, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are navigating this weakened health system, along with testing delays and border closures; all of which are making it extremely difficult to adequately respond to a COVID-19 outbreak in Syria.

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, three countries in sub-Saharan Africa are enduring some of the largest measles outbreaks in the world. But preventative measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 could jeopardise lifesaving measles vaccination campaigns.

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, many people are unable to shelter in relative safety. With increased infection rates among homeless populations in Brazil, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are adapting activities to provide aid to the most vulnerable.