Article by Erebiri Zurenuoc*
Problems with basic health care services in rural Papua New Guinea has been an ongoing issue that always tend to be overlooked or brushed aside.
We read in newspapers and see on television every day the challenges that rural people face day-by-day just to get better health services.
For Mountain Area Medical Airlift (MAMA) Foundation, we put to use the capabilities that we have; and we try to ensure all our helicopters can reach our rural people, regardless of their remoteness, and ensure they get the help they need on time.
Apart from the medical evacuations that we do, that is, the transfer of critical patients from villages or rural health facilities to urban hospitals, where they get further treatment and management, we also fly health workers and their equipment and medical supplies from urban hospitals, to remote villages.
Our recent flight from Lae to Popondetta, and then to Kira Airstrip on January 26th, 2023, was of importance. All other P2-MUM flights were put on hold, as the transfer of health workers to contain an “outbreak” was now of importance.
We weren’t provided much detail of the said “outbreak” because little was known, however, we were told to assist with the transfer of three health workers and two police officers from Popondetta to Kira. We were also to deliver much needed medicines and vaccines, and resources to contain the “outbreak”, which was said to be widespread amongst children.
A report published on the PNG Bulletin dated January 21st, 2023, stated that five children between the ages of 5-6 years including one elderly man died from the outbreak in less than a week.
Arthur Sumugau told PNG Bulletin that the first child died on Friday January 13, second one on Saturday January 14, and third on Monday January 15, 2023. There was a death on Tuesday January 17 and the recent one on Wednesday January 18, 2023. He explained that all of the deceased suffered from fever with: dry cough, head ache, vomiting, swollen face and red eyes, uncontrollable flatulate and rapid loss of weight.
Kira LLG in the Sohe District of Northern Province has no road link and it takes about seven walking days through rugged Owen Stanley range to reach Popondetta and three days walk to the nearest coast of Huon Gulf to catch a boat ride to Lae. The quickest way out of there is by plane, but it again depends on the number of people traveling. Planes don’t go there unless it is fully booked or chartered.
Little was known about the outbreak and what the disease was, until a letter from the Northern PHA surfaced on social media in early February; the letter requesting relief supplies for Pertusis outbreak in the Kira Community.
The World Health Organization in its overview described Pertussis, (also known as whooping cough), as a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis.
Pertussis spreads easily from person to person mainly through droplets produced by coughing or sneezing. The disease is most dangerous in infants, and is a significant cause of disease and death in this age group.
The first symptoms generally appear 7 to 10 days after infection. They include a mild fever, runny nose and cough, which in typical cases gradually develops into a hacking cough followed by whooping (hence the common name of whooping cough). Pneumonia is a relatively common complication, and seizures and brain disease occur rarely.
People with pertussis are most contagious up to about 3 weeks after the cough begins, and many children who contract the infection have coughing spells that last 4 to 8 weeks.
Regrettably, this outbreak can be prevented if the Kira Health Centre was operational and serving that community, however, it has been closed for a decade, this was also mentioned in the letter.
In a recent Post Courier article in February, it stated that Kira LLG’s five Aidposts have been non-operational and has been so in the last 30 years.
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*Erebiri Zurenuoc is the Public Relations and Marketing Officer with Manolos Aviation Ltd/MAMA Foundation
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