How is MSF treating victims of sexual violence?
In Mornay alone, we treated 12 rape victims in June, so the violence is continuing. Cultural mores and fear probably prevent more women from seeking or receiving treatment because throughout West Darfur women and community health workers continue to tell our doctors and nurses about the scale of the abuse. We have tried to establish outreach programs in some of our projects. MSF uses a three-part protocol for treatment: drugs to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), emergency contraception, and post-exposure prophylaxis with the anti-retrovirals (ARVs) lamiduvine and AZT to prevent HIV infection. The first two courses are done in 24 hours. But we see a pretty dramatic decline in those finishing the 30-day post-exposure prophylaxis, and there are a variety of reasons for this – late presentation, stigma, lack of education about HIV/AIDS, the difficult situation women are in, and the complexity of the regimen. Of course we follow every patient to teach her about the importance of
