Communications Problems

Last weekend there was a fire in the diesel fueled power plant of Honiara. Without electricity a good part of communications was down for some time.

The good news: the email address in the National Referral Hospital in Honiara works again!

Consequences of money shortage

Dr. Oberli writes (translation by V. Corti):
"Just a short message which I send from the hospital (which has an emergency power generator): the whole country is without electric power, because the power company can no longer pay the diesel fuel bills, and so all power stations are currently shut down. During the weekend there was enough fuel left for a few hours here and there, but now it's all used up. As long as we still have fuel in the hospital it's ok. At home it's worse: no computer no email... [...] For the same reason the telepathology project has been slowed down."

Apart from the problem of diesel availability there was a problem with a diesel engine in the power station of Honiara. This, according to SIBC News, lead to "more blackouts than normal in the past week". A Japanese engineer with spare parts is expected to arrive today.

Foreign help

An electrical engineer from Switzerland has arrived. He is going to repair the backup power generator in the hospital of Gizo, and will install dentists equipment (donated by a Swiss dentist) in the hospital of Honiara.

After one year of volunteer work gynecologist Dr. Erb is leaving the Solomon Islands, but another volunteer gynecologist arrived from Locarno, Switzerland.

Ernst Knellwolf from Herisau, Switzerland didn't need more than a few hours to fix the problem: just a defective relay has to be replaced, apart from that the generator is in a very good shape. While here, he also repaired an autoclave and an electro-coagulator (once donated by the hospital of Interlaken, Switzerland), which was said to be irrepairable. Dr. Oberli was already asked to try to find a replacement. Ernst Knellwolf checked the current flow, cleaned the heavily corroded connector on the electrode plate, and voilà, the instrument was working better than ever before...

The Australian government has donated more than SBD 290'000 to keep the health service of the Temotu Province going.

The dental chair donated by Heinz Hälg from Herisau is used daily. Although the height of the chair is currently not adjustable (due to a broken hydraulic cylinder), the Dental Clinic is very pleased with the new equipment.

A 5-year AusAID project worth approx. SBD 10 million to improve the country's health sevices is slowly picking up speed. At least three companies are competing for the job. The Permanent Secretary and an Under Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services are currently in Canberra to take part in the interviews with the bidders.

The project should assist the management and supervision of the Health Ministry's headquarters, the Provinicial Health Services, equipment and facilities, and help improve infrastructures and human resources.

This project is not connected to Australia's support of the provincial health services worth SBD 10.5 million.

Japan and UNICEF have donated the necessary supplies for a measles vaccination campaign to the Solomon Islands government. The program will start this fall and should help eradicate measles.

The campaign is part of a 5-year vaccination program for the South Pacific Region. It was initiated by UNICEF and WHO and started in Solomon Islands in 1997.

Japan, as one of the major donors of the program, finances the campaign, while UNICEF and WHO provide technical support and assistance.

The Ministry of Health has received SBD 10.6 million from AusAID to revive the Solomon Island health services. The Ministry allocated the money to 23 departments (including those in the provinces), however, they must provide expense summaries, otherwise they will no longer receive any money.

Dr. Lester Ross, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, has thanked the Australian Government for its donation totalling almost SBD 20 million to keep the Solomon Islands health services going.

For the first time in the history of the Solomon Islands three of the large four clinical departments are headed by Swiss nationals: Internal Medicine (Dr. D. Fenner), Gynecology (Dr. V. Györik) and Surgery (Dr. H. Oberli). Dr. Fenner and Dr. Györik are both volonteers, who were recruited with the aid of an advertisment placed by the "South Pacific Medical Projects" association. So the small advertising campaign was highly effective. The two medical students from Vienna, Austria, work with great dedication in the surgical department for two months.

Australian Rotary Clubs support the government in the fight against Malaria in the Western-Province and Choiseul, which have the highest rates of Malaria in Solomon Islands. The 3-year program will cost more than SBD 2 million. More information about the project can be found here.

As many children as possible (aged between 9 months and 5 years) will be vaccinated against measles during the next two weeks. The campaign is financed by Japan and UNICEF (see news from 30.05.01). No case of measles has been recorded during the last six years.

Japan has recently provided a grant of almost SBD 500'000 to Honiara City for its Clinic Renovation Project. Today the Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of Japan officially opened the newly re-constructed clinic in White River (a suburb of western Honiara).

Thanks to support from New Zealand Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation has its own web site now. The address is: http://www.sibconline.com.sb/

After the White River clinic the Mbokona, Mbokonavera and Kukum clinics have now been renovated and re-opened thanks to financial aid from Japan.

The crew of the Australian navy vessel HMAS "Manoora" raised SBD 39'000 to donate two suction machines and three pulse oximeters to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The ship's crew was on peace monitoring duty in Solomon Islands early this year.

Thanks to financial support from Taiwan, Solomon Airlines was able to buy an engine for one of its Twin Otters and put the plane back in operation last week.

Fracture Clinic

Some information about the Fracture Clinic project can be founde here.

Health Services

The completed and refurbished extension of Gizo Hospital was officially opened today. Provincial Premier Ruben Lilo thanked the ICRC for its SBD 30'000 donation, and asked aid donors to help upgrading the hospital so it could serve as an alternative National Referral Hospital.

According to the annual report 2000 of the Desease Prevention and Control Unit of the Ministry of Health no further cases of HIV were reported since the first case in 1994.

The report mentions that a different source reported two cases in 1996 but that could have been an error in the data.

HIV tests are more systematically performed in the National Referral Hospital on patients with sexually transmitted diseases, relapsed tuberculosis, AIDS related diseases, as well as blood donors.

The report further notes that confidentiality, fear of stigmatization and lack of test kits are all reasons for the low number of tests performed in the country.

Starting today Dr. Oberli is Consultant Surgeon at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara again and paid by the Solomon Islands Government.

Today, on Independence Day, Dr. Oberli was awarded the Solomon Islands Medal, Silver for most distinguished service to the nation. Actual handing over of the medal will take place at a later date.

The National Referral Hospital in Honiara noticed an increase of cervical cancer among young women. The cancer is said to be often in a late and inoperable state. Radiotherapy could be used to treat the cancer, but is not available in Solomon Islands. This means diagnosis of cancer is equivalent to a death sentence for the young women concerned.

The yearly growth rate dropped from 3.3% to 2.8%. At the current rate the population will grow to 800'000 until 2024.

For a few years the Sasamunga Hospital on Choiseul has had a photovoltaic power station. However, since it wasn't installed properly, it delivered just about half of its potential capacity.

Thanks to a SBD 11'000 donation by the Rotary Club Honiara the site was now repaired and upgraded. 20 60W modules deliver about 5kWh/day for lighting of wards and staff houses and to run the drug cooler, operating instruments, laboratory and the dentist's equipment, and the telecommunications room. The hospital should get a x-ray machine soon, hopefully powered by solar energy, too.

More details can be found on the Solomon Islands People First Network Website.

The hospital should also get a trial e-mail station. Details can be found here.

A one-week health awareness workshop with 25 attendees was conducted by the Ministry of Health in Lata (Temotu Province) last week. It focused on information about AIDS, diabetes and tuberculosis. Special emphasis was put on diabetes, because an increase was noted throughout the country.

A similar workshop is planned for the Malaita Province.

After several warnings a strike of the public workers was declared today. However, it is not clear who is on strike and who is not. Apparently at least part of the nursing personnel didn't show up for work this afternoon. The reason for the strike is the ongoing delay in salary payments. On 20.09.01 Dr. Oberli describes the situation in the hospital as quite chaotic, because nobody knows whether they should be on strike or not.

As a public service Solomon Telekom will provide two free phone lines to hospitals to allow communication to and from hospitals in cases of emergency. In the past some hospitals had all their phones disconnected, because the phone bills were not paid.

The service will be provided in Honiara, Lata, Kirakira, Auki, Gizo, Munda/Noro, Buala, and other places with hospitals having a permanent phone connection.

The Ministry of Health has finally introduced charges to keep the health services going. For the time being contributions are requested for food (if not provided by relatives), medical record books, and cash charges.

The 5-year project for the improvement of health services has been launched. Project leader is Dr. Linda Hitchcox from Australia. The first part of the project costs SBD 1.5 million and is financed by AusAID.

The e-mail station in the hospital of Sasamunga (Choiseul province) (see news from 15.07.01) is now operational. For SBD 2 everybody can send an e-mail from Honiara to Sasamunga (or vice versa). More details can be found here.

Doctors are presently working on-call, and treating seriously ill patients and emergency cases, only, until issues regarding the late payment of salaries, non-payment of housing rentals and compensations (with regard to the unrests) are settled.

Patients are asked to go to alternative health services for help, and provincial health services are asked to refer true emergency cases, only.

During the first five days 35 e-mails were sent and 25 e-mails received. More about this project (including pictures) here.

Last year the National Referral Hospital registered a total of 2000 cases of diabetes, and found 128 of them to be new.

This year, from January to October, 168 new cases were counted among a total of 952. 55 cases had complications, e.g. sore legs so bad, they had to be amputated, liver problems, blindness, and heart related deseases.

Gizo Hospital has registed an increase in new cases, too.

Seven people received their awards announced in July today, three of them for their dedication during the ethnic tensions:

Agnes Wale, secretary general of the Red Cross, received the Cross of Solomon Islands for providing help for the displaced people.

Dr. Hermann Oberli received the Solomon Islands Medal for his dedication to the medical field.

James Gaso, Solomon Islands Red Cross driver, received the Solomon Islands Medal for braving road blocks and bringing goods and helpers (including Dr. Oberli) to the people in need.

Media

The 20 minutes film made by Christoph Müller was shown on prime Swiss TV as part of the "Reporter" series. It tells the story of the Bernese couple Messerli, who, after early retirement, wanted to sail around the world with their yacht. The journey ended for Fritz Messerli on Utupua Island (Temotu Province, Solomon Islands) in 1998, where he was unexpectedly attacked and killed by a crocodile in the murky waters near the shore. According to the inhabitants of the island, the last attack of a crocodile dated back many years. Fritz Messerli was buried on the island, his grave carries the inscription "Fritz Messerli taken by a crocodile". The inhabitants tried to console the shocked widow by deeply sharing her grief. To honor Fritz Messerli, a girl, born soon after the incident, carries the first (!) name "Messerli". To give the senseless death of her husband, who was very fond of children, a meaning, Theres Messerli decided to collect money for a school on the island.

In December 2000 she visited the island again together with her sister to celebrate the inauguration of the school house, and to determine the further needs of the school. After their arrival in Honiara, they flew together with Dr. Hermann Oberli and Dr. Erhard Erb to Lata on Santa Cruz Island. The last 100km to Utupua were covered by open boat. The small group was greeted by the inhabitants and the inauguration was carried out with a lot of dancing and singing. Theres Messerli also met the little (blond) Messerli.

Reports

Read Dr. Oberli's report "A week in paradise". In the accompanying e-mail he called the past week "the worst here in the last eight years".

Oberlis' annual review for 2001 is located here.

Telepathology

Kurt Brauchli who will take care of the Telepathology-Project, has arrived in Honiara. A description of this project can be found here.

His diary entries can be found here.

The very first digital histological photograph (early stadium of appendicitis) made locally. It is a historic event not only for the Solomon Islands but for other developing countries, too. In the meantime the picture quality has been considerably improved. More info can be found here.

New reports with many pictures can be found in his diary.

Internet access for the telepathology project is ready. Read more about the status of the project here.

An English report describing this project is now available here.

The first "real" cases are waiting on the server to be diagnosed by pathologists.

Further reports and many more pictures can be found in his diary.

Kurt Brauchli has left Solomon Islands today. He intends to come back for two weeks in December 2001.

Read here what Dr. Oberli writes about the status of the telepathology project.

Training

Another OT nurse attended an AO course in Australia.

Dr. Tovosia is currently in Fiji as an instructor for EMST courses (Early Management of Severe Trauma).

Dr. Patrick, a young Solomon Islander, will start his orthopedics/traumatology training in the very near future.

Paul Saisal from Solomon Islands has completed the first half of his training as an orthopaedic technician in Cambodia. He will, after successful completion of his course, be a very highly qualified specialist and will be a very valuable asset to orthopaedic surgery in the Solomons. His training is fully financed with donated money, and our thanks go to all who contributed to this project.

Transports

Today another container with donated goods has left Switzerland. It is expected to arrive in Honiara at the end of December.

Web Site

Unfortunately, from at least Saturday, 25.08.01 until Wednesday, 29.08.01 we had problems with our web site. The site was not accessible and mails were probably lost. If you contacted us and did not get a reply, please contact us again.

Unfortunately, there were also problems with forwarding of forms (for messages and ordering a payment slip). If you used a form between Saturday, 25.08.01 and Monday, 03.09.01, and did not get a reply, please contact us again.

The web site has moved into a new home, which - hopefully - improves accessability of the web pages and the reliability of mail and form handling. If you filled out a form or sent us a mail and are still waiting for an answer, please contact us again.

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