I was having a chat this afternoon with a couple of the doctors from Goroka General Hospital on the Cholera situation in Morobe and now the Eastern Highlands. One of the good doctors commented that the local newspapers are reporting several illnesses: dysentery, cholera, influenza and swine flu.
Which one is it? I asked him. Which illness are people dying from?
We’re still not 100% sure what is causing the deaths – the good doctor replied – the symptoms described in the media are also the symptoms of severe and wide spread food poisoning.
(By the way… the story I posted on Sunday: “Has Cholera crossed over into the Eastern Highlands” – was confirmed in The National yesterday.)
Perhaps the discussion I was having with the local doctors highlights the general confusion as to what is really going on. The number of deaths, villages and people affected, whether a state of emergency has been declared or not, the illness itself – each day, each story, each newspaper is reporting discrepancies.
One fact remains… people are definitively dying!
Here’s a few excerpts of the various stories news items that appeared in today’s PNG Press:
200 Pupils Infected
The National: story by Pisai Gumar in Menyama
More than 200 pupils and teachers of a large primary school in Menyamya have been diagnosed with both swine dysentery and influenza, as the station’s health centre awaits in distress for medicines, medical personnel and water supply system. The school, Hakwange Primary, some three hours drive from Menyamya station, has been quarantined by health workers…
Government to declare SOE
The National: story by Daisy Pawa Taniova
The health task force for containing the triple cholera, swine dysentery and flu epidemic in Morobe province is not able to give the statistics from all the affected areas. Chairman of the task force and Morobe provincial programme adviser for Health Dr Likei Theo and his team were in a meeting all day yesterday to discuss and verify figures from the cholera outbreak in Wasu and Lae and the swine dysentery and flu in Menyamya. He would be holding a press conference this morning to release the figures. The Government has realised the severity of the epidemic. Health secretary Dr Clement Malau said last night the Health Minister would be advising the Government to declare a state of emergency in Morobe province…
Cholera toll at 101
Post Courier: story by Lae Bureau reporters
The number of deaths from the Menyamya outbreak has reached 101 with two more deaths reported at Ekwange, medical co-ordinator of the relief effort Micah Yawing said last night. Solomon Bomo an officer in charge of Menyamya district, yesterday returned from Kwaplalim sub health centre on the border of Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces with very bad news. According to Mr Bomo 10 people died yesterday at Vailala in Obura Wonenara in the Eastern Highlands…
Seafood cited as cholera link
Post Courier: story by Franco Nebas reporters
Local health authorities in Tewai/Siassi district in Morobe Province have suspected that cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish. District health admini-strator Tureng Tamba said cholera had never reached Papua New Guinea but the risk to PNG was mainly from border crossers from the Indonesian border area. He said however, cholera may occur in persons who have eaten seafood, particularly shellfish, from a port where foreign vessels have discharged waste or ballast…
It would be more safe if the PNG Government sets a move to close all schools, including the PNG University of Technology in Morobe Province. Already the Morobe Government has closed all the Secondary and Primary schools in the Province due to the epidemic and it should also close the University too. This is because there are already cases of the disease present in it and if there were to be an outbreak, it would be totally unstoppable. The health and safety of the majority in the insitution is of vital importance and the Government should priorotize this.
Hi J,
Thanks for your comment. I could not agree more. We have yet to see a concerted effort at containing the Outbreak. People say this and say that but containment will depend very much on the action taken rather than what is spoken.
The Show weekend at Goroka over the weekend was in many ways a success in other ways I’m not sure what to make of it. At least one death due to Cholera type symptoms has already happened within the Chuave District and over the weekend despite Provincial Health placing a ban on all cooked food markets – people went ahead and sold the mandatory kaukau, sausages and other cooked food. I wonder how many people will return home tomorrow and not see out the week.
What I’m even more curious about is why on WHO’s web page dedicated to Disease Outbreaks in PNG have not yet made any mention at all as to what is happening.
Cheers,
R