Morobe bids farewell to experts

 By CLEMENT KAUPA

MOROBE bids farewell to the medical professionals and researchers who graced us with their presence to participate in the 49th national medical symposium in Lae last week.

The week long event ended on a high note last Friday. It is hoped that it started a new and informed chapter in the fight against malaria in PNG from here on.

The 600 medical professionals departed rainy Lae for their respective stations, apparently with renewed vigour derived from the pooling of invaluable information on malaria.

To put matters into perspective, all presentations and discussions throughout the week focused on one universal desire to eliminate malaria from PNG.

In dissecting PNG’s past experiences with malaria and discussing present malarial trends, it is anticipated that the country will eventually be free of the scourge.

If somewhat behind in the global progress on malarial elimination, PNG has taken significant strides since the 90s, as revealed at the symposium.

Though a scale-back on the national malaria control programme in the ‘70s caused a sharp rise in malaria in the ‘80s and ‘90s, remedial actions since them had made dramatic progress.

The vital combination of a drug policy shift in 2000 and a large-scale vector control in 2003 arrested the rise and drastically reduced incidences of the disease by 60%, prevalence to less than 10% and transmission by as much as 90% in most parts of the country.

The health department and other stakeholders such as the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, UPNG School of Medicine and corporate entities have individually and collectively done a remarkable job.

It goes without saying that enormous amounts of resources, finance, effort and time were expanded in turning the malarial tide around to apresent low prevalence and infection rate.

But the symposium wouldn’t have ended on the right note if it did not impress on the national health sector the urgency to persistin the fight with the view to eradicate malaria for good. 

Even better, it was aptly conveyed as a challenge in the question: “Will PNG join its Asian and Pacific neighbours in the bid to eliminate malaria or risk revisiting the dramatic resurgence of malaria as in the 80s and 90s?”