General News from Solomon Islands

• During the year, about 400 members of the police force have been discharged, about 70 of them were arrested for serious criminal offenses, and a few are already serving sentences in prison.
• With Australian aid a third court room was built, now two concurrent High Court hearings are possible.
• Japan will donate SBD 50 millionen for the rebuilding and improvement of runways and taxiways at Honiara International Airport.
• After the success of the local soccer team united the cheering country for perhaps the first time (nobody cared where a player came from), RAMSI donated SBD 750'000 for the development of soccer in Solomon Islands as a means to promote peace.
• This month, the government started to pay back a first part of its debts to local creditors.
• The debts of the government were restructured, as a result the country will save about USD 1 million interest a year during the next 14 years.
• After six years, the "Trade and Culture Show" took place again. Theme: "Tolerance and Co-Existence in Nature, Culture and Commerce".
• One-week long celebrations started in the whole country yesterday to commemorate the arrival of RAMSI a year ago.
• Nick Warner, special coordinator of RAMSI said that quite a bit was achieved in this year, but the situation was still fragile and a lot of hard and dedicated work was required by all parties involved to get Solomon Islands back on its own feet again.
• In the second year, one of the goals of RAMSI is to improve the economy of the country.

Airport Gwaunaru'u near Auki, capital of Malaita Province, is open again, after an agreement was reached with the landowners. The landowners had closed the airport in June, due to non-payment of the rent.

Counterfeit 50-Solomon-Islands-Dollar notes were detected in Honiara and Auki. They seem to be color copies or prints on normal paper. The genuine notes are made of special paper and have a partially visible silver thread.

More than 20,000 people watched the first Oceania qualifying match between the Australian Socceroos and the Solomon Islands team in the Lawson Tama Stadium in Honiara. The result: Australia defeats Solomon Islands 5:1.

The return leg takes place in Sydney on October 12.

Australia defeats Solomon Islands 6:0 in the return match in Sydney and therefore qualifies for the World Cup in Germany.

The daily newspaper Solomon Star has a web site now.

New Zealand has revised its travel advice regarding Solomon Islands. The new advisory starts as follows:

There have been significant improvements in law and order throughout Solomon Islands. The threat of criminal activity affecting visitors and expatriates is now considered to be minimal. However, personal security awareness should be maintained.

Health Services

The number of psychiatric patients in Choiseul increased from 58 in 2001 to 105 in 2003. An increase in the number of mental disturbances due to drug abuse was also recorded in the last three years.

SIPPA (Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association) reports an increase in sexually transmitted infections of almost 90% during the first half of 2004 compared to the same period last year.

SIPPA operates clinics in Honiara, Auki (Malaita) and Gizo (Western Province) and registered a total of 817 cases last year. The largest number of infections like gonorrhea, syphylis, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis was found in Honiara. More than half the patients were found to be 25 years and older, which shows a trend reversal and is against the public notion that mostly young people are affected.

The RAMSI Social Club has donated SBD 10,000 to Taro Hospital (Choiseul Province). This allowed to roof the hospital and complete phase one of the upgrading process.

During his visit in Solomon Islands, the new Israeli ambassador (based in Canberra, Australia) suggested Solomon Islands health authorities should contact Israeli specialists for support. He promised to contact the Israeli medical fraternity after returning to Jerusalem and inform them of the urgent need of specialists doctors in Solomon Islands.

After the drug supply in the country had practically collapsed during the previous years it has now been rebuilt with millions of Dollars. Most of the funds were provided by AusAID, WHO and other institutions. According to Ray Skinner, director of pharmacy services, many hospitals, clinics, and aid posts should now have enough drugs again.

The Solomon Islands Medical Association SIMA is concerned about the lack of specialist doctors at NRH. Between 60 and 100% of positions for specialists in various departments are not filled.

More than 40 local doctors are working elsewhere and more docors are considering to leave because of the poor working conditions.

It is also very difficult to find foreign doctors because of the unattractive working conditions.

The association is disappointed that the public services division has not yet implemented the improvements of the working conditions for doctors, which cabinet approved in 2002. If the conditions were improved, it would be much easier to keep the doctors in the country and convince the ones who left the country to come back.

Last week Lata Hospital has received SBD 25,000 from the Canadian Government. The funds will be used to renovate and upgrade the maternity ward of the hospital. The ward has currently eight beds only. Work is expected to start in November.

A Honiara resident said specialist doctors (once they are available) should not only be sent to Gizo and Kilu'ufi hospitals, but to remote hospitals in Lata and Kirakira, too.

Transportation services to remote provinces are not regular, special patient transports to Honiara are expensive, and if a patient brought to Honiara dies at NRH, relatives will find it difficult to bring the body back for burrial.

The second officially confirmed AIDS patient of Solomon Islands died at NRH yesterday.

The first case was detected in 1994, it was an expatriate, who has since left the country.

With support from Australian Rotarians, the Honiara Rotary Club donated 25 beds, linen, arm braces, breast feeding pumps, and other equipment worth more than SBD 60,000 to the Tulagi Hospital (Central Province). The club also offered to support the construction of a hospital kitchen, something the hospital never had since it was established many years ago.

The Honiara Rotary Club recently donated medical goods to the Helena Goldie Hospital in Munda (Western Province), too.

Some people complained that some nurses on duty at NRH were being impolite and insolent, those patients who could afford it would go to see private doctors because of this behaviour. A hospital spokesperson said the nurses were overworked and under stress.

Dental officers report an alarming increase of dental problems among school children and an increasing demand for full sets of false theeth.

Also increasing are gum diseases and oral cancer which seem to be associated with betel nut chewing.

The Solomon Islands Medical Association, SIMA and the Public Service Department have reached an agreement in principle on new employment conditions (mainly regarding salaries) for doctors. Several issues must still be resolved with the Ministery of Finance, before a final decision is possible.

Up to 2003, the National Referral Hospital recorded 1,500 cases of diabetes. 180 new cases were recorded last year and 67 new cases from January to August this year.

15 new leprosy cases were recorded in Honiara-City and Guadalcanal Province. [Presumably in the last 12 months, no period indicated.]

Japan supports the rehabilitation of the hospital in Kirakira (Makira-Ulawa Province) with more than SBD 420,000. The funds will be used to buy materials for the renovation and maintenance of buildings, plumbing, and electrical installations, as well as a new standby generator.

The hospital was built in the 1950s to serve the area of the Makira-Ulawa and Temotu Provinces. Since 1997, the province did not have enough money to maintain the hospital sufficiently.

In the last six years, the number of diabetes cases has increased more than tenfold. In 1998 there were about 100 cases, now there are more than 1,000. Men and women seem to be affected about the same. The increase is mainly attributed to changing eating habits in urban centers.

According to the National AIDS Council of the Ministry of Health, there are three new confirmed cases of HIV/AIDS in Solomon Islands. Two of them are females.

Solomon Islands and Taiwan have signed a bilateral health cooperation agreement yesterday. It aims to promote and facilitate the exchange of information and experience in the fields of health care and medicine as well as the cooperation in the training of staff in those fields.

An additional SBD 28 million has been allocated for Health Services in the budget for 2005. It will be used for the continuation of essential services, to fund the (hopefully new) Doctor's Scheme of Service, as well as adapt the nurses' payroll to reflect the increased workload.

Almost 20 students from Solomon Islands successfully graduated at Fiji School of Medicine in medicine, medical lab, physiotherapy, environmental health, and reproductive health this year.

Australia has funded a new standby power generator for the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The old generators were not reliable and often failed when needed. Only about half of the 700kVA the new Cummins diesel generator can supply are currently required, so the hospital should not outgrow the generator soon. The generator can provide backup power for up to 14 hours.

The Solomon Islands Malaria Training and Research Institute also got a standby generator, and early next year the Ministry of Health Headquarters will get one, too.

Total cost of all generators is more than SBD 2.1 million.

The maternal mortality rate in Solomon Islands is one of the highest in the Pacific region. At first, Solomon Islands had managed to reduce the rate from 500 per 100,000 to 145, but during the unrest in the recent years the rate went up to 300 again. About 10 midwifery nurses, who recently finished their training, were challenged at their graduation ceremony to help reduce the rate again.

Media and Reports

Information about Taro Hospital.

A picture of the M-V Temotu.

Another filled in questionnaire: FR0401.

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0401.

Two more filled in questionnaires: MS0306 and MS0402.

Another filled in questionnaire: FS0401.

New pictures in the Picture Gallery 4 - People

More pictures on our page about Honiara and a new page about Places to visit in and around Honiara.

More pictures on the Kiwi-House Fact Sheet.

At this year's Dies Academicus, Hermann Oberli-Eggler (Villars-le-Grand) was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Berne, Switzerland, for his projects to support and improve medical services in Solomon Islands.

Congratulations!

Another filled in questionnaire: MD0401.

Some pictures of Gizo Hospital.

Projects

On our Telepathology page.

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