In early 2026, epidemiologist Debbie Malden travelled to South Sudan, where one in three pregnant women can die from hepatitis E. Her mission for the Luxembourg-based research unit of Médecins Sans Frontières: to find out whether vaccination campaigns are actually reaching those most at risk. At a time when international aid is collapsing.
It took Debbie Malden multiple flights from Europe via Ethiopia and the South Sudanese capital, Juba, to reach Renk, a town near the country's northern border. "It was six hours of flying just to get from Juba to Renk. We had to stop in two places to refuel the aircraft, " Malden recalls with a shy laugh. "The airports were also quite desolate. There were aircraft lying beside the landing strips, crashed." Once she arrived in Renk, work began immediately. With only three weeks on site, she had a tight agenda.
In a country, where half of all health infrastructures are estimated to have collapsed, vaccination campaigns can effectively save lives on a large scale. While some infections might be easily cured in a Luxembourgish context, they risk ending fatally if no healthcare professionals or the needed equipment are near. The hospital in the South Sudanese town Renk, which Malden worked with, was the only one in a radar of over 300 kilometers.
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