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A Raging TB Epidemic in Papua New Guinea Threatens to Destabilize the Entire Asia Pacific

posted by martyb on Friday July 05 2019, @10:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the Health-Security dept.

taylorvich writes:

A Raging TB Epidemic in Papua New Guinea Threatens to Destabilize the Entire Asia Pacific:

In Papua New Guinea, a TB epidemic threatens to turn into a disaster that could destabilize the Asia Pacific region. Situated about 90 miles from Australia in the Pacific Ocean, the island nation sees more than 100 cases of TB every day.

Of these cases, five are drug-resistant strains, and 10 people will die, according to World Health Organization figures. Yet, in a nation where more than one-third of the population is illiterate, these figures grossly underestimate the actual number of TB cases due to underreporting. Additionally, 86% of the country’s 8 million citizens live in rural areas with little or no access to health care, further obscuring the numbers.

The government now faces a herculean task to battle the epidemic that has plagued the country. It shares the island with the separate nation of Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, which faces a similar struggle against TB. And Australia, a close neighbor, also has cause for concern: The bacterial disease that attacks the lungs is highly contagious, expensive to treat and is rapidly developing a resistance to drugs.

The country offers a grim textbook case of how education and infrastructure impact health care: The government has neither the finances nor the resources to tackle TB as an increasingly insurmountable health crisis.

[...] According to the WHO, 10 million new TB cases appeared globally in 2017 alone (though TB rates have fallen worldwide). That same year, it killed 1.6 million people, making TB the world’s deadliest infectious disease. And places like Papua New Guinea are seeing an uptick in infection rates — particularly in multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the even more feared drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB)

This grim trend is exportable to neighboring countries.

[...] Many patients can only reach their nearest makeshift hospital by boat — and children have reportedly died en route to treatment after canoes capsize in choppy seas, according to aid workers.

Port Moresby, the capital, is not connected to other major towns by road, and many of the villages in the highlands can only be reached by foot or small aircraft, which is astronomically expensive. Frequent mobile cell service outages render communication a daily struggle. Several mountainous tribes still have little or no contact with the outside world.

[...] With approximately 850 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea, TB education and treatment relies on educators who can speak local languages and dialects like Tok Pisin, a Creole language, and Hiri Motu, a trading language.

“It is not as simple as educating people about TB,” says Lungten Wangchuk, a Papua New Guinea-based TB medical officer with WHO. “We are coming up against traditions, culture, illiteracy, no proper transport, and no money to fund the expensive DR-TB treatment.”

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @12:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 06 2019, @12:12PM (#863791)

    https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-modernist-architects-believed-designs-healthier [artsy.net]

    Here's are the last two summary paragraphs from the link,

    While spaces for healing were often designed to complement medical treatment, by the 1920s, architects like Neutra and, in particular, Le Corbusier increasingly conceptualized the home as “a machine for living in” that could impact the well-being of their inhabitants through their carefully planned design. Advances in building technology—like the steel skeleton of the Lovell Health House—and industrial mass-production of materials freed architects from the structural constraints that for centuries had determined a building’s form. This new freedom allowed them to address the building’s function above all. Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, completed in 1931, reflects the architect’s five-point theory of architecture, which served as a blueprint for modern homes. Its free-form interior walls, façade, and narrow, ribbon windows were all enabled by pilotis—load-bearing columns that elevated the building above the ground. And like the backyard and orchards of the Lovell Health House, Villa Savoye’s roof garden provided a necessary retreat from the hustle and bustle of modern living.

    Today, when we describe a building as having “clean lines,” it’s hard to imagine that this phrase has its origins in the tuberculosis epidemic. Though modern architects eschewed style and ornament in the name of rationality, the minimal non-style they created became one of the most iconic architectural styles of all: International Style.