Insulin Under Fire, Diabetes Care in Crisis Zones with MSF’s Dr. Phillipa Boulle

On this episode of wRight to the Root, Stephanie Wright sits down with Dr. Phillipa Boulle, a non-communicable disease (NCD) advisor with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Switzerland, based in Geneva, to expose what it really takes to treat chronic illness in the middle of crisis.

Dr. Boulle breaks down the growing global diabetes emergency, including why the vast majority of people living with diabetes are in low and middle income countries, and why sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing the fastest rise. She explains how MSF teams work to deliver care in war zones, displacement camps, and protracted humanitarian emergencies, where access to insulin, monitoring supplies, and even consistent food can disappear overnight.

This conversation goes straight to the root of the problem, including:

• Why insulin access is still dangerously limited and overpriced, especially for people with type 1 diabetes who need it to survive

• The hidden crisis of missing glucose monitoring tools, making insulin use far more dangerous in humanitarian settings

• How emergencies like Gaza reveal life-threatening gaps in continuity of care when people are forced to flee repeatedly

• MSF research showing insulin can remain stable at higher temperatures than labels suggest, changing what is possible in settings without refrigeration

• The double standard in diabetes care, and why patients in the harshest conditions often get the hardest-to-use tools

• What’s at stake in the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs (September in New York), and why emergency diabetes care must be explicitly included

• How patient advocacy and government pressure can shift corporate behavior, and how Americans can support global health equity

A powerful, grounded conversation about survival, dignity, and the urgent fight to treat healthcare as a human right, not a business.