Malaria centre opens in Port Moresby

By JASON DOM
A NEW malaria centre built for free treatment and to fast track the elimination of malaria in Papua New Guinea has opened in Port Moresby.
Situated up the hill at the corner of Maple and Silkwood Streets in Hohola, adjacent to the PNG Power Ltd head office, the malaria centre is a five-storey complex.
Many city residents and motorists driving on the Wards Road would notice that new building and wonder what it is.
The malaria centre stands prominently among the old buildings in the vicinity and the first thing that catches the eye is the exterior glass panelling.
The center was birthed from a proposal by Chinese malaria research assistant Nadia Julie who came all the way from her country with one clear objective; the elimination of malaria in Papua New Guinea.
In September 2017 the Chinese government and Papua New Guinea Department of Health reached an agreement and secured a plot of land at Hohola for the construction of the new malaria centre.
Nadia said they engaged a Chinese building construction company called Zhongtai International, which has recruited 30 to 40 local employees for the project.
She said all building materials were shipped in directly from China to Port Moresby. Within the next 12 months the building was constructed with the builders aiming to fully complete it by November 2018, however so far 95 per cent of the building is completed with only few touches to the interior left.
On Aug 24 the deputy director of Shenzhen Centre for Disease Control, Dr Ma Hanwu and Health Secretary Pasco Kase and their delegates officiated the inauguration of the new five-storey malaria centre.
Dr Hanwa said this malaria centre was very important in the fight against malaria.
It costs about 6 million Chinese Yuan, about K3 million.
Nadia highlighted that the building itself would have five sections, the ground floor for exhibition and registration, second floor for two laboratories with one polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The third and fourth floors will for offices, massaging rooms and storing of Chinese traditional medicines. Staff living quarters will be on the fifth floor.
She said the kind of services provided would include malaria diagnosis and treatment, microscopy and entomology trainings. They also have plans for traditional Chinese healthcare services like acupuncture, moxibustion, fumigation, and care for patients with whole body fatigue and other healthcare needs.
Acupuncture means tin needles inserted into the body, moxibustion is therapy consisting of burning dried mugwort on particular point of the body and fumigation involves pest control.
Nadia said the purpose of building this center was to continue the research work by Chinese experts. The first phase of this was the mass drug administration project in Kiriwina, Milne Bay.
She added that they have collected blood samples during the MDA project in Kiriwina which would be ready for testing after the laboratory equipment in the new centre have been fully installed.
She said there will be a total of 30-40 staffs working on the new malaria center when it’s completed in November.
She said their agreement with the Department of Health was to train 30-50 technicians per month and that would include health workers from other provinces, with a target of 300-500 people every year. The training venue will be at the malaria centre’s first floor.
Nadia said the fight against malaria itself was a very big task so they needed all necessary manpower to spread out to every province to fast track the elimination process.
Nadia said the United Nations and the Australian government were also committed to the achieving the same end through their respective programmes which including awareness and the supply of treated mosquito nets to several places in parts of PNG.
The Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine team and the PNG Department of Health see themselves as cohorts of the World Health Organisation in its goal of the elimination of malaria from 2015 to 2017.
She said as people living in malaria-endemic areas we all have the basic right to malaria treatment.