Results for Health

One of the biggest obstacles to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) is worldwide corruption in the health care industry, which according to a Transparency International report, kills an estimated 140,000 children per year, and holds back the fight against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.

Eight wheelchairs donated by the Rotary New Zealand World Community Service was presented to Mango Tree Respite Centre for the disabled at Houmakelikao, on September 24.

A new ambulance donated from the Rotary Club of Christchurch Sunrise in New Zealand was handed over to Vaiola Hospital on September 12.

The young students of Fua'amotu Government Primary School went home with $750 pa'anga cash prize, after winning a cook-off on August 23 in Nuku’alofa.

Training is being held at Vailoa Hospital to update medical staff on endoscopy, a non surgical procedure used to examine one's digestive tract.

A 5km “Colours Fun Run” to raise public awareness over the state of Autism in Tonga was held at the Nuku’alofa waterfront on Saturday morning, 13 July. Over 40 youth in Tonga have been identified with autism.

At a formal ceremony in the Royal Palace, Nuku'alofa, this morning, four Australian members of an Orthopaedic Outreach surgical team were invested with the Royal Order of the Crown by HM King Tupou VI, for their ongoing charitable work in Tonga.

Drug users are headed to prison or the cemetery, warns Ned Cook, Team Leader for the Salvation Army Alcohol and Drugs Awareness Centre in Nuku’alofa. Some people in Tonga are trying drugs out of curiosity, especially methamphetamine, he told Matangi Tonga this week. “But if you keep experimenting with it, the addiction will grab hold of you”. Unfortunately, the services they provide at present "don't reach those desperately needing help".

Tonga's drugs problem is on the rise, “like a cancer in the community,” says Psychiatric Specialist, Dr Mapa Puloka, who warns that government is too slow in tackling the epidemic and needs to urgently prioritize more funding before it gets out of hand. He issues a stark prognosis: “If they can’t stop it...what will happen is drug dealers or drug lords will run our government and end up being their puppets because of the power of money.” By Eleanor Gee.