The COVID pandemic has created many challenges to Pacific health systems, among these is increasing demand for expanding for testing. Although testing facilities do exist in the Pacific, most were designed to screen primarily for TB. As a result, there is pressing need to repurpose these facilities or add new capacity to meet the demands COVID has created.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is globally dedicated to celebrating the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women. It is a day of reflection and a day to highlight critical women’s rights issues and priorities, as well as, a day that marks a call to action for accelerating women’s rights and women’s equality.

Working with people living with diabetes and having worked with them to change their diet and to see their joy in their achievements and improvement in their diabetes control, is always rewarding!

Elisiva Na’ati is a dietician by profession and has a background in human nutrition public health nutrition, having worked in this field for the past 30 years now. Elisiva joined the Pacific Community (SPC) in 2016.

This month the Pacific Community (SPC) will highlight the invaluable contribution of Pacific women in health care. Globally, women make up 80% of the health workforce and in the Pacific 75% of women represent the nursing workforce. This year has been challenging for everyone working in health care as COVID-19 took precedence and placed a burden on health facilities globally.

Did you know that Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) represent one of the most serious challenges to the health and wellbeing of youth in the Pacific region?  

In the ‘Pacific Youth Development Framework 2014 – 2023’, young people identified NCDs as a major development issue affecting their health, wellbeing and their futures. Approximately 75% of all deaths in the Pacific are due to NCDs. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop NCDs such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age.

Health experts were quick to identify that persons living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, heart diseases, hypertension, chronic lung diseases and cancers were more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with COVID-19.

According to the WHO global health survey in 2016, 71% of deaths globally were due to NCDs. In the Pacific, NCDs are the leading case of deaths accounting for 75% of mortality. This is worrying as the Pacific represents a region that is vulnerable to the current health crisis.

For the third consecutive year, young people from different Pacific island states and territories have the opportunity to spread prevention and control messages for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) using different media, thanks to the Wake Up! Project, launched in 2017, with financial support from the Pacific Fund (France) and the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC).

As measles cases continue to be reported in the Pacific, the Pacific Community (SPC) continues to closely monitor the situation and produces a weekly map showing measles and other epidemic and emerging diseases circulating in the region. 

As of 13 January 2020, Pacific countries with documented measles virus circulation and alerts on the map are: American Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga and Australia (Queensland).

The map can be accessed online at: www.spc.int/phd/epidemics