Results for Health

Healthy food in schools can help children develop healthy dietary habits for life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which released a new global guideline on evidence-based policies and interventions to create healthy school food environments. For the first time, WHO is advising countries to adopt a whole-school approach that ensures food and beverages provided in schools and available throughout the broader school food environments are healthy and nutritious. In 2025, about 1 in 10 school-aged children and adolescents – 188 million – were living with obesity worldwide, surpassing for the first time the number of children who are underweight.

Three people have had their fingers blown off by fireworks in Tonga. According to the Ministry of Health, they are among several people who have been injured by the mishandling of fireworks in the lead up to the New Year. Injuries also included burns to eyes, faces and hands.

A new study led by Research Fellow Dr Samuela ‘Ofanoa at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, reveals that TikTok videos about gout frequently contain misleading and inconsistent information. The research highlights the urgent need for evidence-based content. “For Pacific peoples, gout is not simply a lifestyle disease. ...We need a culturally grounded education that explains science and supports families without judgment.”

Obesity surpassed underweight as the more prevalent form of malnutrition this year, affecting 1 in 10 – or 188 million – school-aged children and adolescents, and placing them at risk of life-threatening disease, UNICEF warned in a new report today. According to the findings, several Pacific Island countries have the highest prevalence of obesity globally, including 38 per cent of 5 to 19-year-olds in Niue, 37 per cent in Cook Islands, and 33 per cent in Nauru. These levels – which have all doubled since 2000 – are largely driven by a shift from traditional diets to cheap, energy-dense, imported foods. 

Australia is boosting its support for a healthy Tonga with additional budget support of TOP7.8 million (AUD5 million) to help upgrade health clinics across Tonga. The new funding was agreed today at the Mu’a Health Centre between the Prime Minister, the Hon Dr ‘Aisake Valu Eke and Australia’s High Commissioner to Tonga, HE Mr Brek Batley.

A donation of disability equipment, including wheelchairs, was presented by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the Vaiola Hospital in Tongatapu yesterday, 26 March 2025. The equipment will help to replace the wheelchairs that have gone missing from the wards at the Hospital, where they are needed for disabled patients. It is the fourth such donation the church has made to the hospital.

A street food environment has developed on Wellington Road and outside the Post Office in Nuku'alofa, where BBQs operating are creating noise and traffic conjestion. The health hazards must be ominous. The roads and footpaths are littered with rubbish and grease. Surely, there is a more appropriate place the government could investigate providing for these entrepreneurs? - Ian Skelton

“Investing in climate-resilient health facilities is not a luxury. It is a lifeline,” Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala warned. “We urgently need accessible and equitable climate-health financing for the Pacific. Current funding is simply insufficient to meet the unique needs of these Small Island Developing States. I am here at COP29 to help change that,” he said in the keynote speech in a side event at COP29’s Moana Blue Pacific Pavilion on Friday.

Diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases and cancer have become common “NCDs” in Tonga, Dr. Viliami Puloka told the first National Non-Communicable Diseases Forum, held in Nuku’alofa this week. NCDs can't be cured. “The best time to look after your health is when you’re healthy,” he said.