A Nurse’s Memories of Her Time in TPNG
Ruth Pitt (née Lewis) – PART 1 I grew up in Port Pirie, South Australia. After General Nursing training in Adelaide, as a Registered Nurse (Sister in those days) with two friends I sailed...
Category: Medicine, Health and Science
Training in Mt Hagen, 1982 by Jenny McDonald
It was a rite of passage to go to Papua New Guinea as a medical student. I went with my husband, Peter Sip, in January 1982. We had just finished our fourth year at...
Traditional Chest Surgery Among the Enga ROBIN COOKE, OBE, OAM
In 1980, while attending a conference on malaria in Sydney, I met Peter Sharp, who was at that time working in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea as a medical officer. He described to...
Pig Bel — or, Too Much of a Good Thing? – PNGK Sept 2021
ROBIN COOKE Pigs are widely distributed throughout PNG, although it is not clear how long they have been in the country. However, they have been there long enough to be incorporated into the social...
The Old Goroka Base Hospital – PNGK Sept 2021
A personal recollection of Papua New Guinea medical services PRE-INDEPENDENCE Jack Wall In 1968 I spent two months working for the Public Health Department (PHD) of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG)...
Australian Government to roll out 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Pacific island nations
The PNG National Department of Health announced this week that Covid-19 vaccines are now available to those over 18 years in PNG. The Australian Government has also said it will roll out 15 million...
In Conversation with PNG Police Commissioner and Pandemic Controller David Manning – online 25 June 2021 10am
Papua New Guinea has been contending with a Covid-19 outbreak that has put its fragile health system under intense pressure. Case numbers have in recent weeks stabilised but there are concerns that vaccine hesitancy...
Gemo Island Hospital: After the War MYRA MACEY — Part Two PNGK June 2021
In July 1946, Sister Constance ‘Paul’ Fairhall returned to Papua and was able to round up patients, old and new, and with some original staff, return to Gemo. It had grown from three to...
Experiences of a Medical Student in 1969 RUPERT GUDE PNGK June 2021
The roar of the engine was intense. I was escorting a patient in pain from Kundiawa District Hospital in Chimbu to Goroka General Hospital, and the pilot was trying to gain height to cross...
Kuru—Science Meets Sorcery in the Fore by ROBIN COOKE PNGK June 2021
Medical services in Papua New Guinea were poorly developed until after WWII when the Australian Government established a combined administration of the pre-war Territory of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea into...
Great Australian Medical Moments – Pt2 – Dr Michael Alpers and Kuru
ABC’s Nightlife with Suzanne Hill on 28 December 2020 featured a fascinating interview with Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy – Clinical immunologist (pioneer in a field known as mucosal immunology) and author of the forthcoming...
Gender-based violence (GBV) in PNG
Gender-based violence (GBV) in PNG Participants recently gathered and danced at the National Summit for Ending GBV. According to Human Rights Watch, nearly seven out ten women in Papua New Guinea experience rape or...
PNG blocks Chinese plane after workers were used in vaccine testing
PNG blocks Chinese plane after workers were used in vaccine testing Sourced from the Daily Mail Papua New Guinea has turned around a plane full of Chinese workers after it was revealed a...
Papua New Guinea’s COVID-19 cases.
Papua New Guinea’s COVID-19 cases. Sourced from Loop PNG On Monday evening, the National Pandemic Controller issued the latest data, which brings the total to 111. It was reported that the new case is...
Electronic Tuberculosis (TB) patient management system
Australia is proudly supporting Dr Patrick Koliwan and David Valentine, founders of health-tech startup Refer Tech that have developed an electronic tuberculosis (TB) patient management system. The prototype is being piloted at the Kaugere...
