Paula Gil Leyva has devoted twenty years to the collaboration of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)He has headed the Spanish department since October 2021. She has a degree in nursing, pre-hospital emergency care and a master’s degree in gender and equality. He was in Oviedo to attend the presentation of the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation with the Medicines for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), funded by the 1999 Nobel Prize, of which MSF was the promoter in 2003. Paula Gil has worked in Angola, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, and Sierra Leone, among other countries.
Are you happy with the Princess Award from the Medicines for Neglected Diseases Initiative?
Too much. It is an organization that succeeds in treating extremely vulnerable people better in places where resources are lacking. But it is also showing the world that there is another way to innovate and save lives, beyond pharmaceutical interests that are often solely driven by profit; and that is conscious research on the people who suffer the most.
Sometimes small investments can benefit many people…
Of course, most of the time it’s not just a matter of economics, it’s a matter of will. The people who have the ability to improve people’s lives are the politicians who make the decisions… And they often make the opposite decisions: to continue with a set of dynamics that marginalize forgotten diseases and focus research on other types of diseases. What is treated in the richest countries.
Do you see more responsibility in politicians or in laboratories?
After all, everything is so interconnected. When the political will and the need to develop a vaccine in record time emerged with Covid, it was seen that everyone took action to get the vaccine. Obviously, if there is no political will, there will be no commercial will in other groups.
There is talk of releasing research patents…
We have been supporting the issuance of patents for many years, demonstrating that parallel research that can develop new treatments is possible. The covid example cited is obvious: no matter what happened in the rest of the planet, it was the Nordic countries that prevented the issuance of patents and the accumulation of vaccine doses. Once again, they provided a brief global outlook, particularly from a public health perspective.
Some voices object that direct publication of patents such as this could deter research…
The claim that such a measure would slow down innovation is a clear reflection of this North-South bias. We know that issuing patents is not the definitive solution, but it does lead us to think about the medium and long term about what the incentives are for the pharmaceutical industry and management to find a better balance between economy and health. If we act solely on the issue of commercial interest, drugs for neglected diseases will never be developed because these drugs affect poor countries and poor people who cannot afford them. Changes are achieved through the mobilization of civil society, certain sectors, companies with the will, humanitarian aid organizations and certain political groups. This initiative won by the Princess of Asturias is a clear indication of this.
Which neglected diseases are particularly damaging to you?
They all hurt me equally: Pediatric AIDS is very bad, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, malaria… And it also happens in places affected by other problems such as armed conflicts, displacement… Each of these diseases affects thousands, millions of people. This is a pain that is impossible to measure. I have been in contact with AIDS patients in Mozambique for many years and know that its impact is especially devastating on children.
Which news did you get it from? Loop? Do you know anything directly from your colleagues?
As Doctors Without Borders, we have been working in the occupied Palestinian territories, both in Gaza and the West Bank, for many years. We were working in various hospitals in the north of Gaza. After Israel announced that it would compulsorily evacuate the north, we had to move our international teams to the south for security reasons. Many of our national staff of around 300 have fled to the south with their families, and we continue to maintain contact with them, support them, etc., although it is not always easy. we are working. And there is a group of national staff who have decided to continue working in hospitals in the north, especially the Shifa hospital…
How are you?
What they tell us is, disaster situation. The hospital is completely full, thousands of civilians are taking shelter there… They can’t operate anymore because they don’t have painkillers. They perform emergency surgeries without anesthesia. They have patients with chronic diseases, newborns, dialysis patients, pregnant women requiring cesarean section… They have no water, and even hygiene conditions are at a minimum level. Al-Awda Hospital, also in the north, had to be evacuated within two hours. After the evacuation, the hospital was attacked. There is no safe place.
What does Doctors Without Borders demand?
We want more and we can do it. We have already used all the supplies we have positioned in the Gaza Strip, and due to the borders being closed, our teams cannot receive anything else. We are preparing supplies and medicine so that he can enter the country when the border opens. There must be safe places in Gaza. There is nothing for the civilian population. The blockade and siege must stop now. This is completely inhumane. Since the conflict began on October 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 57 attacks on hospitals, health centers, ambulances… 16 healthcare workers died. We want the safety of the populations so that we can provide humanitarian aid in the region and allow safe routes and safe places.
So what’s going on in Ukraine?
Conflicts continue in Ukraine, as in Sudan, Yemen, Niger, Mali and many other places that are not covered in the press. The situation is very difficult. Winter is approaching again, as all this suggests. Ukraine was the country with the most attacks on healthcare facilities last year. Attacks on health facilities are occurring repeatedly in Sudan. For example, in Khartoum, we had to close an operating room for security reasons and because we could not send any more supplies. Lack of respect for the medical mission is not new, it is persistent and it is important to recognize this.
Sometimes we talk about unintentional accidents…
It’s never up and down, let’s not kid ourselves. Everyone has the coordinates of the hospitals… Bombing a health facility, an ambulance, a place where refugees are concentrated, or an evacuation route is not something that could happen by chance.