Rosie Burton, a British doctor based in South Africa has just returned from one month in Bangladesh, where she was working in a diphtheria treatment centre run by MSF.

We should not be seeing cases of Diphtheria anymore. This highly fatal childhood disease is covered by the basic package of vaccinations, so when it appears it shows there has been a fundamental breakdown in vaccination programmes.

In Myanmar, the Rohingya have very limited access to basic healthcare, which is why we are seeing these cases. In the past months, more than 688,000 people have fled Myanmar and are now living in huge, overcrowded camps with inadequate access to shelter, water, food and medical care; conditions which are ripe for the spread of infectious diseases.

Most patients with diphtheria have a fever, sore throat and difficulty swallowing. Diphtheria forms a thick covering of the throat, which can be dislodged, obstruct the airway and cause swelling of the neck that can compress or block a person’s airways. This often happens to children and can cause them to die.

Bangladesh has not seen a case of diphtheria for many years, so training was incredibly important to make sure we could work safely. It was wonderful to work with the Bangladeshi staff - due to the sheer number of patients needing treatment, they were frontline. They really took on the challenge of responding to the outbreak.

Read the full article about the Rohingya by Rosie Burton at Doctors Without Borders.