Results for Health

The threat that climate change poses to global health is the theme of an annual conference being held by New Zealand’s Otago Global Health in Wellington, New Zealand this week 6 – 7 November. Pacific research will be the focus of the conference.

Twenty-four talented cooks from Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and Samoa, will compete in a reality TV cooking show competition hosted by celebrity chef, Robert Oliver, encouraging Pacific Islanders to make good food choices in a bid to fight non-communicable diseases.

In a world divided by conflict and greed, the Global Fund’s fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria is a matter of enlightened self-interest and a reminder of how much humanity can accomplish when we cooperate to save lives. For public and private donors, that means providing the financing needed to eliminate all three scourges by 2030.

Ambulances, vehicles and medical equipment worth $1.8m pa’anga was handed over to Tonga’s Ministry of Health by the Japanese Government on Wednesday, 15 August.

For decades, the global health community has paid lip service to the critical role of unequal power relations, particularly relating to gender, in determining health outcomes. A recent report by the advocacy and accountability group Global Health 50/50 which reviewed 140 organizations working in the global health sector, makes for disturbing reading....The situation is even worse for men and boys, who, regardless of country, can expect to live shorter, unhealthier lives than their female peers. According to the report, only a third of organizations take a gendered approach to the health needs of the whole population, and no organizations target men and boys specifically. By Helen Clark and Sania Nishtar

Discussions around the overall health and safety of Pacific Islands impacted by extreme weather events induced by climate change were discussed at a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting last week over two days on 15 and 16 March in Suva, Fiji.

The Minister for Health, Hon Saia Piukala said today that all main roads on Tongatapu have been cleared of debris and were accessible today. He called on people with leaking taps to fix them quickly to preserve the water supply on Tongatapu. He also warned of water-borne diseases such as diarrhea spreading after the cyclone.

The uncle of a New Zealand girl Toafei Telefoni (12) who died from dengue in Tonga last week says he and his family are concerned there is a lack of medical facilities to detect the disease and people need to be better informed.

An agreement to achieve universal health coverage and address non-communicable diseases in the Pacific region was signed by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pacific Community (SPC) on 8 September in Apia, Samoa.