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On the front line: Fighting AIDS in a conflict zone

BMJ 2006; 333 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0612475 (Published 01 December 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:0612475
  1. Clare Taylor, specialist registrar in infectious diseases1
  1. 1North Manchester General Hospital

Clare Taylor is a British doctor who recently returned from working for a year in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was her first mission with Médecins Sans Frontières after several years of hospital medicine and training in tropical diseases

I was working in the city of Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu, on the border with Rwanda. It's a beautiful, green, hilly area, still volatile with simmering conflict as the Democratic Republic of Congo tries to emerge from more than 10 years of war. Occasional bursts of fighting remind us of much worse situations in the past decade. For me and the other Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff, this meant curfews at times and having to be vigilant, but, for the most part, it's business as usual.

Sebastian bolesch/still pictures

Bukavu is a city of 600 000 people in the South Kivu province. Ninety per cent of people are unemployed, and 5-10% are HIV positive. Many people live a hand to mouth existence, and most struggle to feed their families. Transport is difficult along mostly unsealed roads-hot and dusty in the dry season and ankle deep in mud in the wet. The town is marked by the presence of United Nations peacekeepers and many armed Congolese soldiers, some …

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