General News from Solomon Islands

On July 31, Solomon Airlines will have a new domestic flight schedule. Most uneconomical domestic routes will be dropped (except for charter flights and emergency transports) and main routes services will be boosted to help cut financial losses and improve the reliability of transportation.

The company currently has three aircrafts for domestic services: two "Twin Otter" aircrafts and one recently repaired "Islander" aircraft.

[Webmaster's note: the new schedule does not seem to be available yet on the Solomon Airlines web site.]

The Ministry of Health has analyzed 14 samples of drinking water from different water sources (White River gravity feed, White River pump feed, Rove, Mataniko, Kombito, and Panatina) in Honiara over the last three weeks. 11 of the samples were contaminated with coliform or Escherichia coli bacteria. Two of the three remaining (bacteria-free) samples contained too much chlorine residue (9-10ppm instead of 0.2-0.5ppm). The Solomon Islands Water Authority is called to take care of the problems and the residents are urged to boil the water.

Honiara City Clinics have recorded 1733 cases of diarrhea since January this year.

As of tomorrow, adult passengers will have to pay SBD 3 for a bus ride. The bus operators attribute this to increasing fuel and vehicle maintenance costs.

The new timetable is now available on the Solomon Airlines web site.

The new MV Pelican Express ferry will service Malaita and Makira provinces from Honiara starting this weekend. A trip from Honiara to Auki will be more comfortable and take a bit more than two hours instead of more than five hours with one of the older vessels.

The Australian Socceroos defeated the Solomon Islands team 7:0 in a Oceania World Cup qualifying match in Sydney today.

The return leg takes place in Honiara on September 6.

Supported by about 20,000 fans in the Lawson Tama stadium in Honiara, the Solomon Islands team members gave their best in the final World Cup qualifying match against the Australian Socceroos. The result: 2:1 for Australia.

Honiara residential areas which get water from the Kongulai dam are currently suffering from shortages. After the recent heavy rains, debris has blocked an important underground water stream feeding the Kongulai reservoir. The blockage is in a difficult to access place but the water authorities are working on the problem.

One of the two transformers in the Honiara power station broke down yesterday and now load shedding has to be used to protect the remaining transformer from overloading. Most affected by repeated power cuts are west and central Honiara. The outages will continue until the defective transformer is eventually replaced.

Lata, the capital of the Temotu Province, has a new 110KW power generator worth almost SBD 350,000. It replaces the old unreliable generator and is supplying uninterrupted electric power since Monday this week.

Solomon Telekom has warned the government last Friday they would disconnect government phones, if the outstanding invoices are not paid until Tuesday morning. Since the bills were not paid, the phones were disconnected during lunchtime yesterday. The treasury department is said to be working on settling the outstanding accounts by today.

Apart from phones, at least some e-mail access may also be affected, e.g. the Telepathology e-mail has been reported to be down.

Honiara still suffers from water shortage (certain suburbs of Honiara are without water for up to three consecutive days) and power cuts. Hopes the new transformer might be operational by the end of last week and power cuts would be over have not come true yet: a frustrated Solom Star reader complained about outages at 10am and 2pm yesterday. Whether the water shortage is mainly caused by the power cuts or by other problems is not clear.

Solomon Islands Water Authority (SIWA) is looking for alternative water sources, as the problem with the clogged main feed of the Kongulai dam, which resulted in a 50% supply reduction, still persists. Furthermore, two pumps have been procured in Australia and should arrive in December to help increase the pumping capacity for the Mataniko and White River water sources.

Health Services

There were 345 malaria infections per 1,000 people in Choiseul Province in 2003, 120 infections in 2004, and this year the number is expected to drop to about 80 infections. The reduction is attributed to improved joint efforts, monitoring cases on a monthly basis, and an increased attendance, as soon as an area reports more than 10 cases.

Atoifi Adventist Hospital and Nursing School in East Malaita now have a telephone connection and a computer lab with Internet and e-mail access.

Solomon Telekom has installed a satellite dish and the necessary equipment for telephone service and Internet connectivity and the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which operates the institutions, has donated 10 new computers.

Taiwan has donated more than SBD 4,000 for the renovation of the Red Cross Cafeteria at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and the installation of a microwave heater and a cooking stove.

The cafeteria serves doctors, nurses, patients, and visitors.

The Isabel Provincial Health Service will start a mini EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunization) campaign in the whole province next Monday. The campaign, funded by UNICEF, will last two to four days. It targets primarily children up to five years. In addition, mothers who did not yet get a tetanus vaccination will also be immunized.

A new midwifery center, funded by the World Bank, was officially opened at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara this afternoon. It comprises a classroom, a library and office, two staff houses, and residential accommodation for 26 trainees. The center will provide for enhanced midwifery training and serve the whole country.

Improved training of nurses and health workers in maternal health care is expected to help reduce the maternal mortality rate, which was at 180 per 100,000 last year.

Japan will support the renovation and extension of Buala Hospital in Isabel Province with more than SBD 443,000. The hospital will get an isolation and a delivery ward, an operating theatre, a pharmacy, an X-ray, a dental unit, and a laboratory.

The hospital has never been renovated since it was built 45 years ago.

A four-member medical delegation from the Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital (KMUH) in Taiwan has arrived in Honiara yesterday. During the next four days, they will visit the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and local clinics to study their medical needs, and meet Government members and officials to discuss how they can best help Solomon Islands with medical assistance and training programs. They also want to meet AusAID health project officers to discuss coordination of foreign help.

The visit is part of a health cooperation agreement signed in December 2004.

On July 22, during one of their management practices, a team of midwives under supervision of Dr Paia helped a mother safely deliver triplets at Kirakira Hospital. No complications were encountered and mother and babies are well.

Five local ophthalmologists, among them Dr John Szetu, an eye surgeon currently working overseas, have recently visited Choiseul Province, examined more than 400 patients, and done 56 eye operations at Taro Hospital. It was the first time the operating theater of the hospital was used since it was completed. The patients were happy they did not have to travel to Gizo or Honiara for the treatment.

The trip of the group was funded by the Government and Dr Szetu's visit by the Fred Hollows Foundation in New Zealand.

Taro Hospital has a dentist, Dr Fred Hopkins, but is still waiting for a doctor to be posted and is also in need of a pharmacy officer.

A nationwide EPI (Expanded Program on Immunization) campaign is prepared for April 2006 and is expected to take more than two weeks. It will target some 70,000 children from nine months to five years of age and comprise immunization against measles, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and hepatitis. The campaign will cost about SBD 300,000 without the vaccines. WHO and UNICEF will support the project and JICA will probably supply the vaccines.

This will be the fourth EPI campaign in Solomon Islands. The first one was in 1997 and covered about 81% of all children between nine months and 25 years. The second was in 2001 and the third in 2003 both targeting children between nine months and five years.

The last major measles outbreak in Solomon Islands happened in 1994.

Unlike New Caledonia, which has seen a recent increase in hepatitis A cases, Solomon Islands does not have a problem with hepatitis A, but hepatitis B is widespread and cases are increasing. Pregnant women are encouraged to give birth at a hospital or medical center, so newborns can be immunized within 24 hours after birth.

An estimated one percent of the population of Solomon Islands are blind, in most cases the blindness is caused by cataract.

Finally, Tulagi Hospital in the Central Province has a doctor: Dr Gabriel Salini, who is also Director of Provincial Health Services. Except for major operations, patients can be treated locally now and do not have to travel to Honiara anymore.

Jewellery with black pearls produced on an experimental farm near Gizo will be sold in Honiara next weekend. The profits of the sale will go to Gizo Hospital.

In 2002 and 2004, jewellery with such pearls was auctioned in Sydney, Australia, with the profits also going to Gizo Hospital.

Three eye doctors have toured Rennell Island to treat patients who cannot afford to travel to Honiara for medical attention.

Such tours are planned for all rural areas nationwide once a year.

Two areas on Guadacanal Island have been found to have a very high incidence of malaria: Lambi with more than 600 cases per 1,000 people and Alua with about 400 per 1,000. They probably rank among the highest incidences in the world.

Last year, the number of severe malaria cases in Guadalcanal tripled and the National Referral Hospital in Honiara recorded 71 confirmed deaths due to malaria, however, the number of malaria related deaths in other health centres and clinics on the island is not known.

The high incidence may be caused by people's carelessness and inattention as well as lack of prompt action by nurses. A study funded by Japan will try to find ways to reduce the mortality rate.

A local hardware store, ITA, donated wheel barrows, spades, knives, hand gloves, mops, rakes, buckets, etc worth about SBD 4,000 to help clean up around the National Referral Hospital as a disease control measure.

The renovated Nila Rural Health Clinic on Poporang Island was officially reopened last weekend. Australia's Community Sector Program provided about SBD 200,000 and the local community contributed timber, gravel, and labor for the renovation.

The clinic, which serves as referral clinic for the other clinics in the Shortland Islands, was originally built by Roman Catholic missionaries in the 1960s. The old buildings had been severely damaged by earthquakes and termites.

Early yesterday, thieves have silently removed two 80W solar panels from a new medical ship anchored off the Yacht Club in Honiara while the crew members were asleep. The vessel, named 'Mauri' (which means 'life'), was recently purchased from Australia by the Seventh Day Adventist Church for more than SBD 800,000 and arrived about four weeks ago. The church authorities appeal to the public to help recover the panels. The panels are used to charge batteries aboard the ship to power lights and medical equipment.

The ship was acquired to deliver medical services to rural areas. The first tour, with Dr Silent Tovosia, Dr Chester Kuma, and nurses from Atoifi Hospital aboard, will go to Isabel. Later this month, Sikaiana (Stewart Islands, east of Malaita) and Makira will be visited.

02.10.05 Addendum: The MV Mauri was officially commissioned today, the solar panels were still missing.

Thieves have broken into Kukum Clinic (Honiara) on Wednesday night and carried away a machine for blood tests and other important equipment worth thousands of dollars. Hundreds of patients had to be sent home on Thursday and the clinic may have to stay closed until the equipment is recovered.

Seven of the nine provinces have seen a decrease in malaria cases in the first half of this year. Only Temotu (+94%) and Makira (+4.1%) provinces recorded an increase.

The Western Province had 250 malaria cases in 2001 and only 87 last year.

The reduction is attributed to:

• bed net treatment
• residential spraying
• mass blood collection (e.g. at boarding schools)
• malaria awareness
• treatment

Infant malaria mortality rate decreased from 29.7% last year to 25.7% in the first half of 2005, and the infection rate dropped from 72.3% to 70.8%.

The Global Fund will support Solomon Islands' fight against malaria with SBD 24 million over the next five years.

Thanks to a new tablet packing machine at the Medical Store Warehouse in Honiara, some imported medication tablets can soon be packed and labelled locally. The foil-backed blister-packs are then distributed to the health centers throughout the country.

Timely distribution of medical supplies remains a problem, as sea and air transports are often unreliable, especially to remote regions, and communication with most centers is by two-way radio only.

Gizo Hospital does not have enough beds to handle the increasing number of TB cases and therefore patients have to be sent home to their villages before the intensive two-month treatment is completed. They are told to seek further treatment and supervision at a nearby health clinic and are given written instruction for the nurses, but patients often fail to do so and in the end come back to the hospital in worse condition, therby further exacerbating the problem. The most critical cases have to be put into the isolation ward, where space is also limited, and others have to be accommodated in a semi-permanent house beside the hospital. The number of TB cases in Gizo has grown from 36 in 2003 to 45 in 2004.

Finally, Taro Hospital has a doctor again: Dr Chris Betcher from Guadalcanal.

An Australian plastic surgery team is currently working at the National Referral Hospital. Plastic surgeons Dr Craig Layt and Dr Robert Drielsma, anesthetist Dr David Kinchington, and nurse Kate Finlay arrived last Sunday. On Monday they have seen 135 patients and they hope to complete more than 90 operations by the end of the week. They are doing cleft lip/palate operations on patients from four months to 37 years of age, but also deal with burns and dirty wounds. The team will leave next Sunday. Their visit was funded by Rotarians and AusAID.

The National Referral Hospital should soon get a new eye clinic at the car park area. The complex will cost about SBD 2 million and will be funded from outside. Presently the eye clinic at NRH (left) has only one small room and cannot handle several patients at the same time. There is also a shortage of local eye doctors, because two trained doctors left the country during the tension. However, one of them may come back next year.

A team from Gizo Hospital has visited Rarumana on Vonavona and villages on Kolombangara and Kohinggo islands in the Western Province to immunize children up to 5 years of age against whooping cough, which is said to be increasing among young children.

The new Olevugha Clinic (Olevuga [Sandfly] Island, NW of Nggela [Florida Islands]) was officially opened last Saturday. It will also serve the people from Buena Vista Island. The necessary funds were supplied by the Australian Community Support Program (CSP).

The Central Province wants to improve health services at the village level to help reduce the number of necessary trips and transports of patients to Tulagi Hospital. The province has been divided into four zones and in each zone an existing Rural Health Clinic will be upgraded to a Rural Health Centre. In addition, a total of 13 aid posts will be upgraded to Area Health Centres.

Each Rural Health Center will be staffed with a registered nurse, a specialized midwifery nurse, a malaria technician, and a nurse aid and will comprise an outpatient department, a malaria laboratory, admissions, deliveries, reproductive health, ante- and postnatal care, and immunization.

After an agreement has been signed between the Ministry of Health and the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand, the construction of the new eye complex on the National Referral Hospital compound can soon be started and is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2007. It will be called Pacific Eye Institute and serve as an eye clinic for Solomon Islands as well as a teaching center for eye doctors and eye nurses from around the Pacific region.

Dr John Szetu, a local eye doctor who recently visited Solomon Islands but is currently living abroad, will return to Honiara in January 2006 to take up the post as Chief Ophtalmologist in Solomon Islands and manage the new Pacific Eye Institute. The training of doctors and nurses will already start next year and the eye clinic will be given more space at NRH until the new building is ready.

According to a letter to the editor of the Solomon Star, the solar panels stolen from the Seventh Day Adventist medical ship have been returned after church leaders took up negotiations with the thieves and promised them they would not be reported to the police.

The Solomon Islands Malaria Training and Research Institute (SIMTRI) thinks it has come across a promising local herbal medicine against malaria. The institute prepared the medicine (a herbal drink ) according to a receipe provided by a local person in its laboratory and then gave the medicine to the person to sell it. During the last three years, the institute monitored the effectiveness of the medicine taken by about 200 to 300 people. In one village the inhabitants were free of malaria for one year after taking the drink and others who had malaria got better within a week, while those in a neighbouring village, who did not take the medicine, continued to have malaria. The institute will continue to monitor the results and wants to start a clinical trial involving doctors next year. Because the (non-scientific) preliminary results look good, SIMTRI is quite excited it may have found a local cure against malaria.

However, a WHO pacific malaria specialist is very sceptical and points out that the same institute had claimed to have found a malaria remedy some time ago, which later turned out to be ineffective.

According to Dr Ba'erodo, the surgical ward at NRH so far has seen 133 admissions of cancer cases this year, 45 of them males and 88 females. Cancer is the third common cause of admission to the surgical ward. Two of the main risk factors are tobacco smoking and betel nut chewing.

In 1999 several Australian Rotary Districts started a joint malaria control project in Solomon Islands called Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM). The project originally started on Guadalcanal, but after the start of the ethnic tension, it was decided to transfer the program to the Western and Choiseul provinces. About US$ 725,000 were approved for the project in 1999.

The project provided:

• more than 350,000 treated bednets
• rolls of bednetting, sewing machines, and the necessary instructions to make bednets
• sprays, chemicals, and the necessary instructions to treat and re-treat bednets and spray homes and breeding sites of mosquitoes
• outboard motors, canoes, and a four-wheel drive vehicle for the malaria control workers to visit villages and programs to refresh the workers' training
• solar powered microscopes and refurbishment and/or construction of health clinics, microscopist houses, laboratories, storage sheds. and water tanks

The program is now continued on Guadalcanal.

Medical Superintendent at the National Referral Hospital, Dr Tovosia, has thanked the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) for providing timely helicopter transport of patients whenever needed, even during nighttime and under bad weather conditions. So far, this has helped save the lives of more than 50 patients.

An Australian diver and longtime regular visitor of Solomon Islands, Mrs Lesley Hillyer, has donated medical supplies to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and Tulagi Hospital. The NRH had helped save her diving colleagues who suffered from decompression in 2002 and she had experienced herself what a lack of medical supplies in an emergency means: while she was in the country, she had lost her baby because there was nothing available to help her.

Member of Parliament for West Honiara, Yukio Sato, has donated a 13kVA standby generator to the Rove Health Care Center in Honiara. The clinic's staff is very happy, because the laboratory and refrigeration equipment (important for vaccines) now continue to function normally despite the ongoing frequent and long power cuts.

Taiwan donated 17 cartons of medical textiles and apparels (e.g. patient's gowns, isolation gowns, pajama pants, fitted sheets, and exam gowns) worth more than SBD 250,000 and the Honiara Rotrary Club donated four wooden sitting benches (supplied by the ANZ Bank in Honiara) which will serve the outpatients at the X-ray and labor departments.

Media and Reports

Two new reports in German by Theodor von Fellenberg:

• Sechs Monate in der Chirurgie im National Referral Hospital in Honiara
• Sechs Monate im Kilu'ufi Hospital auf Malaita

Two filled in questionnaires: FN0401 and MD0402.

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0501.

A new report in German by Ernst Knellwolf: Reisebericht Solomon Islands 2005.

Some more pictures on our page about Gizo.

Additional pictures on our page about Lata Hospital

Three new puzzles on our screen puzzles page. Have fun!

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0502.

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0503.

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0504.

Information for students (and others) going to Gizo

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