Smoking kills millions worldwide

News	Friday 31st May 2013

By KOLOPU WAIMA

ABOUT six million people in the world die each year from tobacco related diseases.
These deaths are now shifted from developed to developing and low income countries including Papua New Guinea. About 50 percent die prematurely at the age of 30-69 for tobacco. These is the productive age range, which means there is a loss in productivity that can adversley affect socio-economic development and lead to poverty.
Health Secretary Pascoe Kase said unpublished surveys conducted in PNG showed 44 percent of adults smoke cigarettes. The male population has the highest rate at 60 percent.
The world youth tobacco survey in 2007 for ages 13-15 indicated that 47.7 percent of this age group used tobacco products, where 55.4 percent were boys and 40.3 percent girls.
Mr Kase said another study on smoking prevalance conducted in NCD and Manus provinces showed children started smoking at the tender age of eight years.
He said this was underaged smoking, and children beginning to smoke at these ages are likely to face one or more of the tobacco related health problems in the next 10 to 15 years if not stopped now.
The Secretary said that PNG youth and adults have the highest tobacco consumption rate in the Pacific.
Yesterday, schools in NCD, celebrated World No Tobacco Day, which falls today.
Ororo Primary School celebrated with students performing dramas and reading poems. Seven Cee (7C) student Kissie Kaika got the attention of all the students, teachers and parents when she read a poem “what’s the use of smoking? Smoke and you never stop. Smoke more and live less your life on earth”.
Most of the students expressed themselves in placards that smoking kills millions of people and as a young people with an unknown future, they will not smoke as smoking kills

O’Neill pledges Free medical care

Source: Home News, Post Courier, January 19, 2012

By JONATHAN TANNOS

MEDICAL treatment and services will be free for all patients throughout Papua New Guinea’s government hospitals immediately.
This was officially announced yesterday by the O’Neill-Namah government declaring it a major intervention program similar to its free education policy.
This will be the country’s first which means Papua New Guineans will receive medical care whatever the ailment for free from all hospitals.
And yesterday also a total of K350 million was given to rehabilitate all referral and provincial hospitals in a bid to step up efficient healthcare delivery.
The country’s largest referral infirmary with 9000 patients, Port Moresby General Hospital (PMGH), received the lion’s share with K50 million.
Prime Minister Peter O’Neill made the official announcements following an official visit to the PMGH accompanied by his deputy, Belden Namah, his cabinet Ministers and members of his coalition after Parliament’s morning session.
He announced the new policy to staff, patients and members of the public at the PMGH reception hall saying it was a major intervention program.
From the K350 million, K150 million will be allocated to the country’s six other referral hospitals including Angau Memorial, Nonga, Goroka, Mount Hagen, Boram and Modilon with K25 million each.
The rest of the provincial hospitals will receive K10 million each.
The K350 million allocation is additional to the K800 million allocated for the health sector in this year’s health budget.
Currently fees include CT-scans, post mortem, morgue storage, sealing certificates, embalming, major, minor and major operations, outpatients, inpatients, ward services, medical examinations and reports and other specialist services and treatments which differ in all respective hospitals.
“Our government is absolutely concerned about the shocking decay of health facilities and inefficient delivery of health services to all our citizens,” Mr O’Neill said.
“As responsible and caring leaders of this country, we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to appalling run down conditions of our hospitals and equally dysfunctional healthcare delivery, shortage of medical drugs and lack of medical and surgical equipment.
“Our government cannot sit by and watch our people dying needlessly because they cannot afford to pay for the cost of receiving appropriate medical treatment, medical drugs are unavailable or surgical equipment to perform urgent operations had fallen into disrepair.
“This state of affairs must stop.
“In this respect, I announce on behalf of our government that provision of health and medical services at all hospitals throughout PNG become free to all citizens with effect as of today (yesterday).
“All citizens will not be charged medical fees anymore.”
In relation to staff welfare, Mr O’Neill said the government was aware of their plight including housing, wages and other remuneration entitlements which it was considering in order to compliment improved working facilities.
Earlier Chairman of the PMGH Board, Dadi Toka Jnr, said it was a struggle to manage the premier hospital with an increase in patients numbers compared with a decrease in the number of staff.

Improve health services’

Source: The National,Friday 09th December 2011

By SHIRLYN BELDEN
THERE is a need to improve health service access in the country and fix the deteriorating health indicators, according to Port Moresby General Hospital boss Sam Vegogo.
Vegogo said this at the launching of the clinical services development plan 2011-16 and its strategic implementation plan after its annual general meeting yesterday at the hospital.
The plan was a call by the Department of Health to improve the public service in health delivery as stipulated in the Vision 2050, medium term development strategy and the National Health Plan.
The clinical services developmental plan provides a range of clinical services that will be developed locally to respond to emerging non-communicable diseases and to enhance surgical capability.
“This document identifies those existing services requiring enhancement and proposes a number of new services which will be required to achieve the objectives of the National Health Plan,” Vegogo said.
The plan was developed by the board of management in consultation with hospital clinical staff members and will develop supporting submissions to the government and donor partners for capital and recurrent funding necessary to implement the strategy.
Board chairman Dadi Toka Jr said it was time the board must ensure vital health service
was delivered to all rural and urban communities.
The plan encompasses the growing health needs of the localities using the hospital facility – National Capital District, Central and Gulf.
The hospital board presented to the Department of Health its annual reports for 2009 and 2010.
The reports presented summaries of performances in the three main directorates of the hospital – medical services, nursing services and finance and admi­nistration

Living positive

Mary breaks 2-year silence

By EVAH KUAMIN

SHE has only been living with the HIV virus for the past two years but yesterday she took the courage and bravely allowed time to break the ice and speak to the media about her status.
Mary*(name withheld) is a 20-year-old Morobean woman and comes from Buigim Village in the Finschhafen District.
She was born the eldest child in a family of four and was in Grade 9 at the Dregerhafen Technical Secondary School when she first learnt about HIVAids.
That year 2008, she decided to withdraw from boarding school and spend her time helping her parents in the village. She contracted the virus in October 2009 and discovered her status after going for a HIV test at the Braun Memorial Hospital in Finschhafen.
She was placed on medical treatment for the past three years and is continuing to this day.
Mary left her home and joined the Morobe Network for People Living with HIV/Aids (MNPLWHA) just last year.
During this time, she has gained the courage to speak out openly about her status going on awareness and outreach to areas along the Okuk Highway.
Yesterday Mary left with a team from the MNPLWHA to conduct awareness in the Bulolo District.
It was a first for the young woman to go on the awareness campaign trail into Bulolo.
The shy, soft-spoken woman said it was difficult at first to openly speak out and disclose her status to her family and friends but she has slowly overcome this.
She was reluctant to inform her parents in fear that they might disown her from the family but this has proven otherwise. After learning of her status, her parents have accepted her and have helped by providing spiritual care.
Mary said she has a lot of other friends who have the same status as herself of whom some are as young as 14 years.
With the assistance of the different district aids committees in the province and partners, Mary has also been trained to be a counselor to help people who are in the same shoes as herself.
Her parents are the only family she has of whom she has disclosed her status.
She has plans that in the future, she would be able to break the ice and speak out openly in creating awareness and outreach on HIV/AIDS in her own community.
During awareness campaigns, Mary is given time to share her life testimony and leaves with a challenge to her peers and people not to indulge in risky and unsafe sexual practices.

RH Foundation gives BAHA K50,000 to help fight HIV/AIDS

Source: The National, Thursday 24th November 2011

By SHIRLYN BELDEN

THE Papua New Guinea Business Coalition Against HIV/AIDS (BAHA) received a K50,000 boost from the Rimbunan Hijau Group of Companies yesterday.
Rimbunan Hijau, through its charity arm RH Foundation, presented a cheque for the amount as a gesture of continuous support for the work of BAHA. 
BAHA general manager Caroline Bunemiga received the cheque from the RH Foundation legal officer, Pia Dometa.
She thanked the foundation and said the donation was timely as they were preparing for the World AIDS Day on Dec 1.
“The longest supporter of BAHA is the RH company and BAHA is grateful to have its continuous assistance.”
She said other corporate companies must recognise this effort and support BAHA.
The money will be used for operational purposes.
RH Foundation is the major sponsor of BAHA, having sponsored it for over three years now.
The foundation said the assistance was to support BAHA with its mission to educate and help business enterprises develop and implement policies and programmes that promoted the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
RH HIV/AIDS programme coordinator Janis Eryl Jandayan said the assistance was intended to disseminate information on the control of the disease, promote healthy lifestyles and awareness about the effects of HIV/AIDS in the country.
BAHA is the key organisation that represents the PNG private sector response to HIV/AIDS by facilitating information sharing, permitting economies of scale in the development of workplace HIV/AIDS products and services and creating a strong front for public policy debate and advocacy

Health study completed

Source: The National, Monday 21st November 2011

TEN researchers from Papua New Guinea’s Divine Word University, Pacific Adventist University and the PNG National Department of Health are completing a data analysis and scientific publishing workshop in Cairns, Australia.
The month-long workshop ended on Friday and was hosted by James Cook University and funded by AusAID.
It is designed to help the researchers prepare and present their findings for publication.
The workshop has been run as part of a joint project on which the three universities collaborated in investigating male circumcision as a possible way to reduce HIV transmission in PNG.
“Working together on this important health issue, and sharing our findings with communities in Papua New Guinea, has been a highly successful collaboration,” JCU researcher Dr David MacLaren said.
“Our PNG colleagues have guided the investigation of contemporary and traditional circumcision practices in Papua New Guinea, and whether male circumcision would be an acceptable approach to reducing HIV transmission.
“As part of our contribution to the partnership, JCU is running this workshop for researchers who want to boost their success in a critical part of life as an academic: Getting your work published in scholarly journals.”
The researchers are investigating a number of topics, including the different types of circumcision, acceptability of infant and adult circumcision, religious views on male circumcision, and leaders’ attitudes towards male circumcision.
The workshop has included sessions with JCU and visiting academics on subjects including: analysing quantitative and qualitative data; choosing the right journal for your publication; and scientific writing for publication.
“Working with statistics is one of the areas the workshop participants wanted to focus on,” Divine Word University’s Dr Clement Manineng said.
“The HIV and male circumcision study has involved interviews with more than 860 men and 510 women, and has produced a lot of data for analysis.
“Our aim as researchers is to have manuscripts published in this important area,” Rachael Tommbe, from Pacific Adventist University, said.
Papua New Guinea has more than 90% of all the cases of HIV in Oceania

Power cuts affect hospital services

Source: Highlands Post, Post Courier, November 16, 2011

By JOHNNY POIYA

HOSPITALS in the Highlands provinces have scaled down operations while their standby generators operate 24 hours due to a massive and unprecedented power interruption in the region over the last three weeks.
The backup generator in one of the hospitals broke down in the middle of a life-saving operation and all operations have been referred to other hospitals.
Business houses, Government institutions and consumers which depend on electricity from Ramu (Yonki) have been faced with a nightmarish power blackout, which seem to go on and off every 10 minutes, especially in the Highlands after four of the five main turbines at the hydro station, which supplies electricity to Lae, Ramu, Madang and the whole Highlands provinces were damaged.
Electricity from the functioning turbine, aided by the backup power from the single turbine in Paunda along the border of Western Highlands and Southern Highlands Provinces, are providing an insufficient output which is being rationed to the consumers which results with the continuous disruptions.
At the Kundiawa General Hospital in Chimbu, an 18-year-old standby generator set which has been providing backup power blew off its head gasket yesterday after being in use 24/7 over the last three weeks.
Caretaker Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mathew Kaluwia said: “All Government institutions should be depending on each other to effectively deliver but the power disruption is the worst Kundiawa has ever experienced and our backup genset had to go 24 hours and blew itself out.”
He said patients would be referred to other hospitals in the region for operations as of yesterday. “We were in the middle of big operation today and the genset broke down. Whom are we to blame?” he said. Wabag General Hospital CEO Salan Eri said the power interruptions were drastically affecting operations at the hospital.
“Our 25-year-old standby generation has been in full use for over two weeks. With the limited funds we have, we can’t go on like this,” he said

Health services worsening, accounts inquiry told

Source: The National, 26th October 2011

By JEFFREY ELAPA
PUBLIC health services have deteriorated over the years with lack of essential medical equipment, deteriorating infrastructure and lack of funding.
This was revealed yesterday during the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the health status of the Nonga Base Hospital in East New Britain and the Angau Memorial Hospital in Lae, Morobe.
Members of the parliamentary committee present were chairman Malakai Tabar, member for Kandrian-Gloucester and Deputy Speaker Francis Marus, Markham MP Koni Iguan and member for Kiriwina-Goodenough and Vice-Minister for State Enterprises Jack Cameron.
Public servants present were chief secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc, secretary for Treasury Simon Tosali, acting Health secretary Pascoe Kase, chief executive officers of hospitals and their managers, Health Department senior officers and provincial health advisers and Treasury and Personnel Management departments personnel.
It was revealed that health facilities, equipment and supplies were deteriorating and needed immediate maintenance while many needed replacements.
It was also revealed that the funding from the government were not enough to cater for the increasing number of patients.
Provincial health administrators also revealed that major hospitals faced overcrowding and many patients had to sleep on the floors because there were no beds.
It was also revealed that manpower was lacking to effectively deliver services to the people even with the limited and outdated medical equipment and facilities, and the limited specialist doctors the hospitals have.
The public accounts committee was receiving reports of the health status but, due to the sudden death of a senior health official, the inquiry was deferred to next month.
Other government departments to appear before the PAC inquiry are lands, national planning and implementation, National Housing Corporation, National Museum and Art Gallery, Office of Rural Development and individual districts.

Study: HIV spread high at rural sites

Source: The National - Monday 10th October, 2011

By SHIRLYN BELDEN

A STUDY by the National Research Institute reveals that having multiple sexual partners and not using condoms have caused the fast spread of HIV/AIDS in rural development sites.
The study was conducted on Oil Search Ltd workers.
It looked at the long working shifts, sex regulation on site, concurrency of sexual relationships and practices and location of sites where money was available.
The factors are revealed to be the increasing vulnerability to and risk of HIV/AIDS for the workers.
These factors are:
l    Practices such as cutting of penile foreskin where the cutting instrument is reused;
l    Sexual violence;
l    STI treatment and assistance seeking;
l    Lack of consistency in condom use;
l    Concurrency of sexual partners from a range of sexual network;
l    Limited knowledge of HIV/AIDS and STI; and
l    Stigmatisation and discrimination.
NRI director Dr Thomas Webster said: “We need to understand where we are most vulnerable and at risk and identify appropriate measures to reduce risk factors,” he said.
The study aimed to identify, understand, analyse and assess policy-related issues around sexuality and sexual health, and the structural factors within the OSL work environment that impact on their practices.
It was also to provide an insight into how work environment and economic development can influence sexuality and sexual practices, marital lives and the concurrency of sexual partners of mobile workers.
The study was conducted in 2008 and 2009 by personal interviews and questionnaires.
Research facilitator Holly Buchanan said the study would help to target continuing prevention strategies and policy considerations for OSL workers and other rural development sites in the country.
The report was launched last Thursday by Health and HIV/AIDS Minister Jamie Maxtone-Graham at NRI in Port Moresby.
Maxtone-Graham said the research had provided the Department of Health with data for its national surveillance system to help monitor behavioural trends with the more-at-risk people and places overtime.
The behavioural surveillance survey research was an initiative of the NRI and the Department of Health as its national response to HIV/AIDS in the country.
The study was carried out on a number of rural development sites including the WR Carpenters plantations in Western Highlands and the proposed Jiwaka province of where the report
was launched early this year.
With an extensive HIV education programme in place, Oil Search is uti­lising the information to identify and address further responses to HIV prevention, treatment and care to minimise the impact of HIV in its workplace and surrounding communities

Smoking and betelnut banned at health units

Source: The National - Monday 10th October, 2011

By DULCIE OREKE
SMOKING and the chewing of betel nut are to be banned at all health department facilities, clinics and hospitals.
Health Minister Jamie Maxtone-Graham said on Friday: “I am tired of seeing smoking and chewing around our health facilities, they are supposed to be places where people heal.”
Speaking during the launch of new health and well-being initiatives, Maxtone-Graham said the acting health secretary was preparing an instrument authorising health facility managers to take action against any person who smoked or chewed betel nut at health facilities..
Maxtone-Graham will task the department to relay the instructions to all health facilities, asking managers to set an example for their staff.
“With these announcements, it is now clear we are responsible for our health and well-being. We will beat non-communicable diseases in Papua New Guinea,” he said.
Maxtone-Graham hopes that everyone hears the message and tries to take action to be happier and healthier. 
He said in the past, chewing of betel nut was conducted during ceremonial events involving chiefs but that would no longer be the case.