There are about 38 million people in the world living with the HIV virus; hundreds of thousands die every year. Aid from rich countries is stagnating, leading to almost a third of those affected not having access to treatment. The fight against HIV / AIDS is no longer in vogue and resources are being reduced, just when more of them would be needed. HIV is now rarely portrayed as a deadly epidemic and a global threat to health. But that is exactly what it still is.

The catastrophic explosion in the port of Lebanon's capital, Beirut, claimed hundreds of dead, thousands injured and affected the lives of all residents. The humanitarian organization MAGNA has been providing medical assistance in the country for years and is now helping the victims of the disaster.

After 7 years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, 3.4 million people need humanitarian assistance. One-fifth of these are children, and more than a million people have had to leave their homes.

Until now, the humanitarian organization Magna has been helping mainly in Africa and Asia. It focused on regions where access to water, medicines and health care is the worst. During the pandemic of the new coronavirus, Magna is helping for the first time in Slovakia. "South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have a lot of experience with epidemics, they are still in a worse starting position. On the other hand, we in Europe have succumbed to the deceptive feeling that something like this cannot happen to us," says for SME the co-founder of Magna DENISA AUGUSTÍNOVÁ.

MAGNA will provide material assistance, health and education services to the Slovak elderly in retirement homes and protective equipment to oncological patients in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia.

More than 160 countries have reported cases of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. The WHO declared the outbreak a pandemic. In many places where we work, there is limited capacity to respond to the influx of patients with a new disease that may require intensive care. Protection of patients and health workers affected by the pandemic is essential.

Despite the fact that these situations cannot be completely compared, according to MAGNA head of operations, Denisa Augustinová, we can learn from epidemiological infections, such as ebola, cholera or even measles, also in Slovakia.

The humanitarian organization MAGNA provided almost 1,200 special protective masks for the staff of the Children's Clinic of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Medicine of the National Institute of Pediatric Diseases in Bratislava. Protective means for the prevention of coronavirus infection have been set aside from its supplies for emergency situations in its projects abroad, while the organization will provide the National Institute also with a specialized medical tent used in emergency situations. It is planned to be used to classify patients before entering the hospital.

The humanitarian organization MAGNA will vaccinate nearly a quarter of a million children under 5 years of age in the Democratic Republic of Congo against measles.