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News-making alumna in South Sudan is a doctor without borders

7 June 2011 - By Deborah Minors

Respected South African current affairs television shows Special Assignment and Carte Blanche featured Dr Prinitha Pillay in documentaries broadcast on 4 and 9 January 2011 respectively on the political and humanitarian situation in South Sudan and the healthcare Pillay provides there as a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders doctor.

Professor Kathy Kahn (MBBCh 1984), who notified �������ý of Pillay’s broadcast, wrote “I know Prinitha well as she worked on and off for the MRC/�������ý-Agincourt Unit before and during her medical studies”.

Pillay, 37, (BSc 1996, BSc Hons (Medical Biochemistry) 1997, MBBCh 2003) completed her internship at GF Jooste Hospital on the Cape Flats and community service at Tintswalo Hospital, Limpopo Province, South Africa.

She is currently studying towards a Masters in infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Pillay, who joined MSF in 2006 and has since worked in India, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, South Africa and North and South Sudan, wrote in an e-mail to �������ý prior to the broadcast:

“‘I am writing from Southern Sudan after having completed a mass measles vaccination 

campaign following an outbreak of a disease that has seen an unnecessary comeback in the last decade.

“Sudan has been in the spotlight because, on 9 January, the South [decided] through a referendum whether to secede or not, after Africa’s longest running civil war which has claimed two millions lives and displaced four million people.

“Throughout Southern Sudan, mortality rates remain high – [the region] has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world – malnutrition is chronic, and regular outbreaks of preventable diseases, like measles and tuberculosis, remain a persistent threat.”

The objective of the MSF project in South Sudan in which Pillay is involved is “to reduce morbidity and mortality for resident, displaced, transiting and returning populations in Bor town, through support to the referral secondary level health structure.” This included “overseeing all medical activities (provision of care and the training of national staff), management of the pharmacy and medical supply, developing and reviewing medical protocols, management of the medical team and analysis of the medical data.”

“This is a very large project, with 20 international and regional staff living in the MSF compound and more than 170 national staff and 15 MOH staff receiving MSF incentives.”

Pillay continues in her e-mail: “In my small hospital, I’m confronted daily with almost every conceivable infectious disease like Brucellosis, Cutaneous Anthrax, Cancrum Oris, and all medical and surgical emergencies. But what is most frustrating for me is that for this rural population, or for those in conflict settings where MSF works, there is hardly a rapid response to these emergencies, or simple diagnostic tests or effective treatment available for most of these diseases.”

“With MSF, I realised that working in different places has helped me feel part of the world – the middle of nowhere is somewhere for someone – and that working where nobody else goes, to bear witness and speak out for patients who cannot, [makes me proud] of my South African roots.”