PNG PM Sir Michael Somare. Credit: U.S. PO Mark Logico.
By Rich Bowden
Hundreds of people in Papua New Guinea have been reported killed and thousands infected by simultaneous outbreaks of cholera, dysentery and influenza.
Latest figures supplied by the government have said around 177 people are dead from dysentery alone in outbreaks in the provinces of Morobe, Gulf and Eastern Highlands, reports PNG’s Post Courier newspaper. With many of the regions most affected in inaccessible territory, health officials have said the number of infected could exceed 5,000.
Though mostly concentrated in remote highland communities, there have been cases confirmed in the regional capital of Lae, online healthcare journal hc2d.co.uk has said.
The city’s already-stretched healthcare system is battling to prepare for an influx of patients as government officials have declared a state of emergency and have begun establishing posts in the heaviest hit disease areas to better monitor the outbreak.
Sally Stevenson, coordinator for international medical aid organisation, Doctors Without Borders, said a very real public fear of the outbreaks, especially cholera, was present in the community.
“It’s also trying to overcome the fear of cholera, because it’s a new disease and it’s unknown and it strikes quickly,” she told VOA News. “So there’s quite a deal of fear in the community that needs to be overcome.”
Aid organisation CARE International, which is working with PNG’s Provincial Division of Health and has deployed an assessment team to the affected Wonenara Sub-district in the Eastern Highlands Province, has said it is particularly worried about the cholera outbreak.
Insanitary conditions
Describing it as the “…first recorded occurrence of cholera in PNG,” a CARE International news release said the outbreak had been exacerbated by lack of access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation.
“The situation is made worse by poor sanitation and lack of access to potable water supplies in rural Wasu and by lack of safe water supplies, crowding and insanitary conditions in the settlements around Lae City,” the statement said. “Because Lae lies at the start of the Highlands Highway, it is feared that unless contained the epidemic will quickly spread up into the populous Highlands Provinces.”
The NGO puts the number of deaths from cholera at 20 although notes that some local news outlets put the figure much higher.
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