Bangladesh 2020 © Hasnat Sohan/MSF
Responding to a refugee emergency and caring for neglected communities in Bangladesh.
May 23, 2025 — Amid concerningly high levels of hepatitis C in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 30,000 people will receive care by the end of 2026, as Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) significantly expands its treatment programs. This decision to expand comes after a 2023 MSF study published last month in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology that found that nearly one in five adults—an estimated 86,000 people—are living with chronic active hepatitis C infection, highlighting the urgent need for a more robust response.
Following an upsurge in fighting in Myanmar in 2024, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams witnessed an increase in the number of Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh, many with violence-related injuries.
Since mid-2022, there has been a significant increase in violence inside the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, partly due to conflict over the border in Myanmar. In September 2024, the fighting forced MSFto temporarily suspend activities in some of the camps for a number of days. MSF teams treated some of the injured. Earlier in the year we also witnessed Rohingya boys and young men being threatened and pressured into returning to Myanmar to fight.
In Cox’s Bazar, thousands of people continued to receive health care in MSF’s eight health facilities in 2024. MSF provided emergency care and sexual and reproductive health services, as well as mental health support and treatment for victims of sexual and gender-based violence. We also treated patients for a range of non-communicable diseases, acute watery diarrhea, respiratory infections, dengue fever and measles.
Scabies remained a major health issue in Cox’s Bazar. In the last quarter of 2024, MSF saw a sharp increase in cases compared to 2023, when numbers had reduced following a mass drug administration. An MSF-led assessment found reduced chlorination and poor water distribution across all camps, likely contributing to a rise in waterborne diseases.
624,100
Outpatient consultations
2,200
People started on hepatitis C treatment
3,330
People treated for intentional physical violence
3,930
Births assisted
*Data from MSF International Activity Report 2024
Learn about MSF’s journalistic roots and our commitment to bear witness and speak out about the plight of the people we treat.
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