Deaths on rise: PNG faces twin health disasters
Covid-19 case numbers and deaths continue to rise in Papua New Guinea, but health charities say there’s a second health crisis looming alongside the growing epidemic as the pandemic causes major setbacks to tuberculosis treatment programmes.
The PNG Government is planning to start a full national rollout in May, but experts say the country needs more help with the complicated logistics of delivering vaccines and healthcare to the country’s 9 million residents.
Next week, the country will receive
132,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India, PNG health minister Jelta Wong told Reuters. China has also agreed to supply the country with
200,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. Australia has sent 8000 doses to PNG for healthcare workers, but has not received a response from Europe regarding a request to send 1 million AstraZeneca doses being held overseas to the developing country instead of Australia.
PNG has recorded more than 7400 cases of the coronavirus and 67 deaths.
The vaccine rollout, when it does happen, will require overcoming huge logistical hurdles. Many parts of the country are not accessible by vehicles, and misinformation spread on social media is a major concern.
ChildFund Australia health adviser Tracy Yuen said the Covid epidemic meant having to share the same limited resources with other health needs. With the focus on Covid, particularly in the capital, she felt the provinces were being left behind.
‘‘The majority of rural health facilities aren’t open,’’ she said.
‘‘Even before the Covid pandemic, a lot of health facilities were running out of funding, having to close, running out of basic resources, supplies, medicines.’’
Health workers were also turning patients away from facilities. Some facilities were full, but others were not open due to a lack of personal protective equipment and fears over the spread of Covid-19.
That meant treatment for infectious diseases was falling behind, as well as childhood vaccination programmes and maternal health. World Vision Australia’s head of programmes in PNG, Graham Strong, said tuberculosis treatment had also faltered due to the pandemic. ‘‘We’ve already seen reports coming out that Covid is actually setting back the progress that we’ve made in addressing the high prevalence of TB in places like PNG by 12 years,’’ he said. – Nine