Iran: MSF continues medical activities despite severe communication restrictions

The enormous loss of life reported by the media is devastating. As communications remain intermittent, it is extremely difficult for us to obtain information on the current situation or to confirm reports, including those concerning the number of people killed and injured.

During brief lifts in the nationwide communications blackout, we have been able to make occasional contact with MSF teams, who are safe and have been able to continue caring for our current patients.

Although we are not authorized to carry out activities beyond the scope of our projects focused on marginalized communities in Iran, we continue to offer medical support to hospitals. To date, MSF has not received any patients with injuries related to the violence.

What is MSF doing in Iran?

MSF runs three projects in Iran that provide primary healthcare services, including medical and midwife consultations, infectious disease screening, hepatitis C treatment and nursing, and mental health services to marginalized people – in particular Afghan refugees – in South Tehran, Mashhad and in Kerman province. These populations face major barriers to care due to stigma, criminalization, lack of identification or insurance, and inability to pay.

South Tehran 

MSF opened its project in South Tehran 2012 to address critical healthcare gaps faced by marginalized populations in one of Tehran’s poorest and most complex urban areas.  MSF provides integrated, patient-centred primary health care to through a fixed clinic, mobile clinics, and targeted activities with vulnerable populations. The primary healthcare services include infectious and non-infectious disease care, sexual and reproductive health care, wound care, mental health and psychosocial support, hepatitis C screening and treatment, referrals to secondary care, as well as social support, and health promotion. 

Mashhad

MSF has been present in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city, close to the border with Afghanistan, since 1996. Since 2018, MSF runs several mobile clinics offering medical and psychological consultations and screening for infectious diseases, such as hepatitis C, amongst vulnerable groups. In the clinic in the Golshahr district, where most of Mashhad's Afghan refugees live, MSF teams provide counselling, social support, health education, and referrals to specialized health facilities. 

Kerman province

MSF is the only medical organization providing direct health services to Afghan refugees in Kerman province. Our primary health care centres are aimed at serving underserved peripheral areas of Kerman city, host to around 200,000 Afghans. Since April 2024, MSF has been operating the Vahdat clinic, 10 kilometres outside the city, and is now establishing a fixed clinic in Kerman in partnership with health authorities. Services will cover communicable and non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial support, wound care, and screening for tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis B and C.