General News from Solomon Islands

Today the new 100-Dollar note featuring a coconut tree and a revised 2-Dollar note have been launched by the Central Bank of Solomon Islands. Up to now, the highest denomination note was 50 dollars. 100- and 50-Dollar notes have a silver hologram and a metal thread as security features. The revised 2-Dollar paper notes replace the previous 2-Dollar polymer notes, on which the color wore off too quickly.

A counterfeit 100-Solomon-Islands-Dollar note without metal thread and silver hologram was discovered in Honiara today. According to SIBC News, the Central Bank "is concerned that a pornographic picture was printed on the watermark area of the note". The matter is being investigated.

Some results from the recently completed nationwide Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) of 3,822 private households.

84% of the total population live in rural areas, 39% of the total population are less than 15 years old and 2.2% are 65 years or older.

Average annual household expenditure for medical and health services: 0.46% of income in urban areas and 0.24% in rural areas.

Average hours worked in a week by households who earn wages in health and social work: 48 hours in urban and 42 hours in rural areas. Average for all working areas: 47 hours in urban and 39 hours in rural areas.

Full reports are available here on the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office web site.

Another counterfeit 100-Solomon-Islands-Dollar note was discovered in Honiara today. The Central Bank of Solomon Islands advises people to make sure currency notes given to them have the proper security features.

Health Services

Lata Hospital suffers from a water shortage again and if the situation does not improve soon, the hospital may have to close.

The new maternity ward at Lata Hospital was officially opened yesterday. The "Gunter Kittel Ward", as it is named, comprises three wards with 28 beds, one delivery room, one nurses station and two facilities for showers and toilets.

According to Temotu Health Director Dr Günter Kittel, the project was initiated in 2002, funded in 2004, and work started in 2005. The total cost was SBD 750,000, with SBD 400,000 contributed by the Solomon Islands Government, SBD 250,000 by Canada and more than SBD 60,000 by the Temotu Province.

Temotu's population is growing fast, and, at the current rate, might reach 100,000 by 2050. [Webmaster's note: in 1999 the population was about 20,000.] Dr Kittel said that the population was stable until WWII, but then traditional ways of birth control lost their function and the modern ways introduced since are not really accepted yet, but everything possible must be done to reduce the rate of growth.

The water situation at the hospital is still critical.

After the anesthetist from Israel left, the National Referral Hospital was without an anesthetist for about a week. A local part-time anesthetist based in Papua New Guinea was then hired under a locum agreement. He will leave on Friday. Another short-term locum from Papua New Guinea should follow soon.

A full time anesthetist from India was supposed to be recruited, but withdrew his offer again.

Finally, an anesthetist was found in Holland and is expected to start working on a one-year contract sometime in August.

Key church representatives and the Ministry of Health have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to improve the cooperation in delivering health services to the public. The three main church administered hospitals are the Helena Goldie Hospital in Munda and the Sasamunga Hospital on Choiseul operated by the United Church, and the Atoifi Hospital on Malaita operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

National Referral Hospital Medical Superintendent and orthopedic surgeon Dr Silent Tovosia and Head of Pediatrics Dr James Auto returned from a 10 week medical training course at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Dr Tovosia was training in orthopedics at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, and Dr Auto was working in pediatric intensive care at the Dana Children's Hospital, Ichilov for six weeks and spent four weeks in cardiac intensive care at the Wolfson Hospital in Holon.

The visit was initiated by Dr Josuha Rubin, the Israeli anesthetist who recently left Solomon Islands after about a year. More doctors from Solomon Islands are expected to get such a training in Israel in the future.

The Vuturua community on the east coast of Nggela Pile, Central Province has a new clinic. The new permanent building, worth about SBD 115,000 replaces an old aid post built in 1989 from bush material. The clinic was funded by the Australian Community Support Program, the community supplied labour, timber, gravel and sand and made a cash contribution. About 1,000 people attended the official opening last weekend.

Eight Solomon Islanders have won Taiwanese scholarships to study in Taiwan. Among them Dr Silent Tovosia, Medical Superintendent and orthopedic surgeon at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara who will pursue postgraduate studies for his master's degree. He is expected to leave for Taiwan later this year.

Kirakira Hospital (Makira Ulawa Province) has been renovated with help from Japan who provided SBD 400,000 for a general face lift, improved plumbing and electrical installations.

Lata Hospital and Lata still suffer from an extreme water shortage. Dressing of wounds cannot be done anymore and just washing hands can be a problem. The hospital labs, including the malaria and x-ray lab, are closed and hospital services had to be reduced.

About half of all deliveries in the Temotu Province take place in the hospital, on the average about one delivery a day. Hospital delivery has been promoted to avoid unnecessary deaths, but now mothers may have to be advised to return to home deliveries.

Some patients from faraway places who could be discharged are staying at the hospital due to lack of transport. If they have relatives living nearby, they are also short of water and therefore hesitate to accommodate them. Hospital staff are giving their best but have to spend part of the day to find water for their own families.

27 nurse aides from all provinces have successfully completed their 18 month training at Helena Goldie Hospital Nurse Aide Training School.

Members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and the Participating Police Force handed over a donation of 800 prescription glasses to the eye department at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara last Friday. Most of the glasses were collected by the Western Australia Police with support from the Optometrists Association and newspapers from Western Australia and then shipped to Solomon Islands. See also page 29 of Newsbeat (2.2MB pdf file). The next collection, planned for the coming months, will focus on children's glasses because there is a particular shortage of those in Solomon Islands.

Glasses in Solomon Islands are expensive and availability is limited because they have to be imported.

Results of the recently completed "Solomon Islands Nationwide Disability Survey: A way forward to working with people with disabilities (PWD) in SI":

Most prevalent disabilities:

• vision impairment (27%)
• physical impairment
• hearing impairment

According to Temotu Health Director Dr Günter Kittel, the water situation at Lata Hospital is still the same.

A tractor to transport water for the hospital had been provided through the provincial government, but the vehicle broke down with a mechanical defect after three trips and nobody knows when it will be fixed. The Ministry of Health has purchased some tanks and pipes but they are still in Honiara waiting to be shipped to Lata. The Ministry is also trying to find funds to purchase a truck for water transport.

A new teaching ophthalmic operating microscope worth SBD 400,000 was delivered to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara last Friday as part of the agreement with the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand.

The construction of the new building for the Pacific Eye Institute (PEI) is expected to begin next month.

The very first postgraduate training courses for five nurses from the Solomons and the Pacific region already started in temporary premises at the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. Diplomas for the courses will be awarded by the Fiji School of Medicine and the Papua New Guinea School of Medicine.

Nine nurses and doctors have applied for courses next year.

A 35-year-old mother from Galilee village in North Malaita gave birth to the first recorded quadruplets in Solomon Islands. The babies were delivered by cesarean section in the eighth month of pregnancy. The operation was done at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and took about one our. The mother is recovering now and the babies weighing from 1.5kg to 2kg are being monitored in the nursery.

At six months, the mother had a weight of an eight months pregnant woman and was first referred to Malu'u Hospital and later to Kilu'ufi Hospital where she spent most of July. The first scan there showed triplets but the second scan revealed faint signs of a forth baby. Last Wednesday she was finally flown to Honiara where the scan showed quadruplets and the mother was operated in the same night.

All four babies are girls. They have six siblings, one boy (the oldest) and five girls, all of them singletons.

The New South Wales (Australia) Red Cross has donated seven heat sealing units to the blood bank at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The freight costs were paid by RAMSI health scientist Robert Dyer. Some of the units, which are used to seal the plastic blood bags, will be passed on to provincial hospitals and clinics.

NRH uses about 20 to 25 units of blood a week and there is always a shortage of blood. People are encouraged to come to the hospital and donate blood. Donors get a hemoglobin level check, hepatitis B status, HIV and syphilis test for free.

See letter to the editor of the Solomon Star. A reader thinks the Temotu government should do more about the situation at Lata Hospital.

The Ministry of Health says the recent measles campaign was about 96% successful. Nearly 60,000 children between one and five years of age have been immunized.

According to Dr Jeffrey Hii of the WHO, about 30,000 children in the Western Pacific region die of measles every year. WHO aims to eradicate measles in the region by 2012.

A second group of Taiwanese specialist doctors is expected to arrive in Solomon Islands next month as part of the sister hospital relationship between the Kaoshiung Medical University Hospital and the National Referral Hospital.

Two doctors and two nurses from Solomon Islands are currently training at the Kaoshiung Medical University.

An eye team from Honiara has toured Isabel Province, looked at more than 250 patients and performed 48 eye surgeries in the new operating theatre at Buala Hospital last week. The operating theatre, funded by the Japanese Government, had just been officially opened shortly before.

The four-day tour was funded by the Solomon Islands Government and the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand.

Three volunteer doctors from Sydney Australia, Dr John Stephen, team leader and pediatric and spinal orthopedic surgeon, Dr John Tarantalis, a young orthopedic surgeon, and Dr Glen Hawkins, an anesthetist, are currently visiting the National Referral Hospital in Honiara as part of the Australian Orthopaedic Association Outreach Program. They arrived last Saturday and are here to perform operations and assist with technical expertise and training of local registrars. The Australian Government paid for the team's travel expenses and Kimberly-Clark donated two boxes of sterile surgical gowns.

When the team arrived, the autoclave at NRH had technical problems and to get it going again they had to request some emergency assistance from Australia first.

The team will leave Solomon Islands this Saturday.

See letter to the editor of the Solomon Star. According to this reader, the Temotu government tried its best to solve the problem, but the national government failed to deliver promised help.

According to Dr John Paulsen, Director of the Disease Prevention and Control Unit, diabetes (and the number of amputations as a result of it) is still steadily increasing in the country. Most new cases were reported from rural areas and therefore more information and treatment facilities must be provided for the rural population.

See letter to the editor of the Solomon Star. A former doctor at Lata Hospital writes that doctor and water supply problems are a long-standing issue in Lata, and gives one of the reasons why he left: the lack of a structured manpower plan that lets doctors get more training and follow a career path.

Governor General Sir Nathaniel Waena, who was minister of health in an earlier government, made an official visit to the the Ministry of Health and the National Referral Hospital in Honiara yesterday. Medical Superintendent Dr Silent Tovosia said in his presentation, that wards, facilities and infrastructure at NRH must be expanded to handle the continuously increasing number of admissions (more than 8,500 last year). The hospital currently has 246 beds, 45 doctors, 237 registered nurses and 129 other staff.

The Medical Superintendent also paid tribute to the overseas donors for providing help: e.g. AusAID providing funds for the smooth operation of the Ministry of Health, World Bank assisting the establishment of the Midwifery School, and Taiwan helping expand the hospital, e.g. by funding an administration building with offices and a library. This building is almost completed and expected to open next month.

A health worker at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara is very happy about the Governor General's recent visit to the hospital, but wishes people from the ministry of health would not only visit the hospital on such occasions. See letter to the editor of the Solomon Star.

A week-long no-scalpel vasectomy workshop for doctors and male nurses started in Honiara yesterday. It covers both theory and practical work. See also earlier news item.

Last weekend, five volunteer eye specialists, Dr Geoffrey Painter (team leader), Dr John Hue, Dr Jeremy Smith, and theater nurses Helen Taylor and Mary Ann Renshaw from Australia have arrived in Solomon Islands to assist local doctors and treat about 100 eye patients in Honiara, Gizo and Choiseul Province. They have already performed three corneal transplants (the very first time such an operation was done in Honiara) on Tuesday and will also do cataract, retinal, and laser surgery.

Travel expenses are paid for by the Australian Government. The visit is part of the AusAID funded Pacific Islands Project (PIP).

The Australian Red Cross (ARC) has donated two portable beds to the blood bank at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The beds for donors they had were old and damaged and therefore blood could only be collected at NRH. Now they can collect blood outside the hospital again, e.g. at schools, business houses and outside Honiara.

According to Dr George Malefoasi, Permanent Secretary Special Duties in the Ministry of Health, the current flu outbreak in Solomon Islands is caused by influenza type A virus, and so far, no evidence of avian flu has been found in Solomon Islands. Rumors had it, that Chinese people who left the country during the April riots, have since returned with the bird flu virus.

Dr Lu I-cheng from the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan will work as anesthetist at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara for the next three weeks and technician Mr Hsiano Chung-chieh will install a dental X-ray machine which arrived from Taiwan last week.

A study of 631 admissions at the Special Care Nursery of the National Referral Hospital in Honiara over the last 18 months showed that 268 were admitted because of low birth weight (LBW) and 51 died. Those babies who died or suffered from LBW often had teenage mothers or mothers who never received antenatal care in a clinic during their pregnancy.

To help reduce the LBW related risks, the clinic needs more equipment, such as apnoea monitors, pulse oximeters, pumps, etc., as well as more staff. Often a single nurse has to care for the nursery alone and is not always present. Further, staff should be trained on resuscitation of newborns.

These findings were presented by Dr Simon Salopuka at the 42nd Papua New Guinea Medical Symposium in Madang yesterday.

As part of its Health Institutional Strengthening Project (HISP), AusAID donated three new MediBurn hospital waste incinerators worth SBD 850,000 to the National Referral Hospital, Gizo and Kilu'ufi Hospital. The incinerator at NRH was installed last month and is already in use, the ones at the two provincial hospitals should be installed and become operational in the near future.

An 18 member medical team from Taiwan will arrive tomorrow and stay in the country for two weeks. The team will spend most of the time at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, but will also visit the Marau Area Health Center and the Balolava Clinic on the Weathercoast of Guadalcanal, Tulagi Hospital in the Central Province, the School of Nursing & Health studies at SICHE (Solomon Islands College of Higher Education), and the Birth Aid Training School.

The team comprises nurses, doctors and health management experts from Taiwan International Cooperation Development Fund (ICDF), Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital (KMUH) and Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital. They will offer assistance in the fields of dentistry, obstetrics & gynecology, anesthesia, internal medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, pharmacy, nursing and hospital management and look for possibilities to exchange personnel.

The visit is part of an earlier agreement.

Atoifi Adventist Nursing School operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, will eventually be relocated to Honiara, to make it easier to access for as many Solomon Islanders as possible. However, the hospital will remain at Atoifi.

As part of an agreement to strengthen the relationship between the two countries, Solomon Islands has received a draft bilateral health arrangement from Cuba.

Taiwan will soon start phase four of its hospital improvement program for the National Referral Hospital in Honiara: the construction of an outpatient and a research complex on the hospital's parking lot.

So far, Taiwan has spent more than SBD 100 million on this program. Phase one and two are already completed and phase three will be completed soon.

While Nauru's minister of health acknowledges that finding doctors for Pacific islands is a big problem, he says to be careful when selecting Cuban doctors. Their knowledge of English and ability to communicate and work in a team should be carefully checked. Furthermore, agreements should be explicit to avoid misunderstandings, discontent and frustration on both sides. About two years ago, Cuba sent 11 doctors to Nauru. At first, the minister of health was very happy to have more doctors (the country had three doctors for a population of about 10,000), but after 18 months the doctors' contracts were terminated early.

Kiribati has recently recruited doctors from Cuba, while Papua New Guinea is considering such a move and Solomon Islands has received a draft bilateral health arrangement from Cuba.

Nauru is a tiny Pacific Island State north of Solomon Islands (about 0.5°S and 167°E).

Kilu'ufi Hospital (Malaita Province) has a separate TB isolation ward now. It was officially opened last Wednesday.

Malaita Province has a high incidence of TB. This is mostly attributed to a lack of awareness among the people who, by the time they seek help at the hospital, are often severely sick. However, given the limited available manpower and resources, it is difficult to bring information to all places especially to the more remote locations of the province. So far, 79 cases have been recorded this year.

The Ministry of Health, the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, the Honiara City Council, and the Pacific section of the WHO are doing a study to test the effectiveness and suitability of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) in Honiara.

Pregnant women who attend antenatal clinics in Honiara and are going to deliver at NRH are asked to participate in the study. They will get an early uterine scan at NRH, which is used as an incentive.

So far, the standard procedure used in Solomon Islands in pregnancy is weekly chloroquine chemoprophylaxis. However, compliance is poor and the prevalent Plasmodium falciparum is increasingly resistant to chloroquine.

IPTp consists of curative treatment doses of an effective antimalarial drug administered early in the second trimester (after quickening) to clear the placenta of the parasite. For best results two to three doses in equally spaced intervals are applied, but even a single dose is already beneficial. Fansidar (SP, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine) will be used in the study as local P. falciparum resistance is low, the drug's effectiveness is well documented and it is not expensive. Treatment is done in antenatal clinics and can therefore be closely supervised by nurses.

Malaria in pregnancy can cause severe (and often deadly) anemia in mothers and low birth weight of babies. More information can be found on the WHO web page Malaria in pregnancy.

A new biochemistry analyzer has been installed at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara. The Ministry of Health purchased the machine from Roche Diagnostics, New Zealand for about SBD 300,000.

The hospital has been without such an analyzer for about a year and therefore everybody is very happy to get quick test results again. The new machine is said to be three times faster than the old one and can handle about 200 tests per hour. The laboratory staff expects getting about 50 samples for analysis every day.

Medical waste from clinics and hospitals in Honiara ending up at the Ranadi dump site can now be disposed of in an incinerator donated by the Japanese Government through JICA.

A hospital waste incinerator has recently been installed at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara.

Medical Aid Abroad New Zealand Inc. (MAANZ) has donated 40 boxes of medical supplies (medications, instruments and other items) to the Malu'u Area Health Center and the Bita'ama, Gwaiau, and Fo'ondo clinics in North Malaita.

MAANZ was asked to support a local community project by the To'abaita Authority for Research and Development (TARD), a volunteer group established about a year ago by local students studying in Fiji.

The request to MAANZ was submitted in July and the boxes arrived in Honiara at the end of September. They will be brought to Malaita when the students come back from Fiji over the year-end break.

02.12.06 Update: Today the supplies were distributed to the clinics, thanks to a transport hired by a Member of the Parliament for North Malaita.

The National Referral Hospital in Honiara has a second local orthopedist: Dr Patrick Houasia. He recently passed the final exams in Australia and successfully completed his training. Congratulations!

His training was supported by Dr Oberli and the Swiss association "Medizin im Südpazifik" (South Pacific Medical Projects).

Dr Silent Tovosia is the first local orthopedist. He is the current Head of Orthopedics and Medical Superintendent at NRH.

Samasodu on the west coast of Isabel has a new clinic building. It was planned about a year ago and recently built in just about two weeks by a SWIM (Short Workshops In Mission) team of 27 mostly young Australians from New South Wales. The local community provided timber while other building materials arrived in a container from Australia.

The new clinic will be officially opened early next year and replace the old clinic in the village.

See letter to the editor of the Solomon Star. According to a reader from Isabel Province, the recently born quadruplets were not the first in Solomon Islands. Some 48 years ago, quadruplets were born in the Hograno area on Isabel, but only one of them survived.

During a meeting with Solomon Islands students at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, Health Minister Clay Forau Soalaoi urged all students from Solomon Islands studying medicine to come home after graduation and serve their country which is still short of doctors.

More than 30 students from Solomon Islands are currently studying medicine at the the Taurama Campus of the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby.

Solomon Islands has two new confirmed HIV/AIDS cases which brings the total number of confirmed cases to eight. However, the Solomon Islands National AIDS Council (SINAC) estimates the actual number of HIV/AIDS cases could be about 150.

Yesterday, on the eve of World Aids Day, SINAC invited all 50 parliamentarians to a breakfast to inform them about all the problems associated with HIV/AIDS and get their support, but only 11 accepted the invitation and participated. Health Minister Clay Forau Soalaoi volunteered to have a HIV/AIDS blood check done and urged the others to have tests done, too, but none of them followed him.

HIV/AIDS tests and counseling are available at centers set up in Honiara at Rove Clinic, the Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Association, the Ministry of Health and the National Referral Hospital. Other such centers are being established at Gizo Hospital (Western Province) and Kilu'ufi Hospital (Malaita Province).

Surgeons at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara have urged drivers and pedestrians to be more careful to avoid traffic related accidents. According to surgeon Dr Douglas Pikacha, there have been quite a number of road accidents in the past days and weeks, many of them due to drink driving or carelessness. There are only two surgeons at NRH right now and since most victims had to undergo operations the doctors are kept busy around the clock. Therefore, handling additional emergencies, such as road accidents, is getting increasingly difficult.

19 Solomon Islands students graduated from Fiji School of Medicine yesterday. Dr Anigafutu received a masters degree in anesthesia and Judith Sade, Elvis Naibo, Waki and Wanta Aluta received postgraduate certificates and diplomas in eye care. Other students graduated in dental surgery, surgery and medicine, reproductive health, public health, physiotherapy and health services management.

Altogether more than 200 students from 15 Pacific Island Countries graduated from Fiji School of Medicine this year.

The Social Club of the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) in Honiara has raised SBD 20,000 during a charity event last Friday. The funds were donated to the National Referral Hospital's Pharmacy Puppet Troupe to include men's health issues, such as prostate and testicular cancer and depression, in its awareness program. The funds will also be used by the troupe to visit Auki and give a performance there.

Three medical doctors, a hospital management expert, and a technician from NRH's sister hospital Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital in Taiwan arrived in Honiara yesterday. The doctors, Dr Lu Yi-hsu, Dr Chen Haui-min and Dr Hsieh Ming-chia, specialists for cardiology, cardiac and vascular surgery, and diabetes, will provide volunteer services at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and three rural clinics in Guadalcanal Province. The hospital management expert, Dr Hsiao Shih-huai, will prepare phase four of Taiwan's support plan for NRH and the visit of medical teams from Taiwan next year. Phase four of Taiwan's support will comprise the construction of two new buildings to house the outpatient clinic, a research center, an office and accommodation.

The team also brought along medical instruments (a coagulation analyzer) and supplies for NRH worth more than SBD 500,000. The technician, Mr Lee Yao-wen, will install the equipment and teach hospital staff how to use it.

The group will return to Taiwan on December 18, 2006.

Three volunteer doctors from Sydney, Australia, are currently working at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara: orthopedic surgeon and team leader Dr Stephen Quain, anesthetist Dr Campbell Brown, both from St Vincent Hospital, and surgeon Dr Daniel Rahme from St George Hospital. The group's visit was organized by the Australian Orthopaedic Association under its Orthopaedic Outreach Programme and provides a good opportunity for the local doctors to learn from their colleagues.

The team will take care of about 50 patients during their one week stay.

The three doctors from Taiwan saw hundreds of people with ringworm (tinea) during their visits of rural clinics in Guadalcanal Province. They attribute the large number of cases of the contagious disease mostly to lack of attention to hygiene and say a public awareness program is urgently needed.

Locally the disease is known as bakua, a Marovo (Western Province) language word also used for the plant Cassia alata (aka Candle bush), which has been used in the past as an antifungal treatment.

Last Tuesday, anesthetist Dr Luk Hsiang-ning, an associate professor at Taiwan's National Defense Medical Center, arrived in Solomon Islands to provide anesthesia service at the National Referral Hospital and to give lectures to the local staff. He brought along a GlideScope worth SBD 250,000 as a donation for NRH as well as other anesthesia supplies and equipment.

Dr Luk Hsiang-ning will stay for at least two weeks.

Media and Reports

There were only nine entries made in the guestbook since its inception in November 2003. Because of the obviously low interest of visitors, but an ever increasing interest of spammers to try to dump their advertising links into the book (dozens of such entries were received every day), it was decided to remove the guestbook. Comments can still be made by using our contact form.

Pictures on the Kirakira Hospital page and two more filled in questionnaires: MS0601 and MS0602.

Another filled in questionnaire: MS0603.

A new book on our books page: Reptiles of Solomon Islands by Michael McCoy

Solomon Islands 2006, a medical student's blog. Has many photographs with short comments in German.

Gabor im Südpazifik , an orthopedic registrar's blog. Lots of  photographs and comments in German. Enjoy the pictures but use translation services (e.g. Google or Babble Fish) at your own risk: often, if not most of the time, the outcome is either hilarious (mostly for people who understand German) or incomprehensible (for the others). The "gowalkabout" entry of 3 December 2006 includes an English report from another member of the hiking group at the end of the page.

Three filled in questionnaires: FS0601, FS0602 and FS0603.

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