In Brief: Disaster preparedness mission concludes in Papua New Guinea

Photo: IRIN

Residents from around the Meni area in Wewak, East Sepik Province, watching the sea swells crashing against the Winjammer Beach Motel, which eventually collapsed

BANGKOK,  – A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team has concluded a two-week disaster preparedness mission to Papua New Guinea (PNG).

“The mission is important to the government as it will independently review the ongoing efforts of the proposed new arrangement of managing disasters in future,” Vini Talai, humanitarian affairs analyst for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told IRIN on 15 May, from Port Moresby, the capital.

The mission included five other provinces: Bougainville, East New Britain, Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Northern.

“The provinces were selected by the National Disaster Centre from the four different regions of PNG and on the basis that they are all disaster provinces,” Talai explained.

One of the most disaster prone-countries in the region, PNG is prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, drought, tropical cyclones, floods and landslides.

In addition, the country has experienced man-made disasters such as oil spills, industrial pollution, unregulated land use, environment degradation caused by development activities and population movements.

ds/mw source.www.irinnews.org

Guinea has seen sporadic shortages in the past few years but the situation has worsened sharply in 2009

GUINEA: Medicines running out

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN

Worker at a health clinic in Labè, Guinea

DAKAR, – Public health centres in Guinea are facing a critical shortage of basic medicines and aid workers and health officials are urgently seeking a way to replenish stocks.

This is a real problem. We do not have enough medicines for the needs of the population, Mohamed Lamine Tounkara, regional health director in the Kindia region, 137km east of the capital Conakry, told IRIN.

A patient in a public hospital in Kindia today would have to seek most of the medicines he or she needs at a private pharmacy, where prices are far higher than in government health facilities, he said. Kindia “ home to some two million people, with five major public hospitals and 51 health centres “ is just one of many regions affected, according to UN and government officials.

The lack of medicines stems from a number of factors, including lack of government funds, rising drug prices and poor management, according to Mohamed Lamine Yansanè, the Health Minister’s chief of staff.

Guinea has seen sporadic shortages in the past few years but the situation has worsened sharply in 2009, health experts said.

We are currently facing enormous difficulties, Yansanè said, adding that the Health Ministry is appealing to the government and to donors to help tackle the problem. But with the current situation in Guinea we do not have aid from the outside.

Some donors have restricted assistance to Guinea since the coup d’tat in December.

Yansanè said the government recently announced it would free up 11 billion Guinean francs (US$2.2 million) to buy medicines, but it is not clear when the funds would be available, and nearly double that amount is needed.

Philippe Verstraeten, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Guinea, told IRIN: This is an urgent problem. While many factors have brought this about the most important thing is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for people throughout Guinea “ particularly the most vulnerable “ to access basic medicines.

He added: This lack of medicines in public health centres and hospitals is part of a broader problem of Guinea’s health system. But while all actors work to address these problems we must act now to ensure that basic medicines are within reach for all Guineans.

 

It is becoming increasingly difficult for people throughout Guinea – particularly the most vulnerable – to access basic medicines

A number of problems in the health system were identified during a joint UN, NGO and government evaluation mission in March in three prefectures  Bokè, Gaoual and Koundara.

The evaluation revealed frequent ruptures in medicine stocks in public health centres, along with a lack of proper storage for medicines and vaccinations, many health facilities in a dilapidated state and lack of health personnel in public centres, according to the mission report.

Government officials recently met with representatives of UN aid agencies and donors to discuss health-related needs for 2009.

While private pharmacies have medicines in stock, rural populations have difficulty getting to the pharmacies and most Guineans cannot afford the prices, so more and more people will go without, UN and government officials said.

Shortages or not, for years Guineans have turned to questionable medicines sold by unregulated vendors; Guinea is one of many African countries where counterfeit pharmaceuticals pose a health problem. The government recently cracked down, arresting alleged manufacturers and ordering a stop to unregulated sales. It is unclear what impact new controls have had on the availability of legitimate medicines, aid workers said.

The current shortage could complicate the government’s effort to eliminate dangerous fake drugs, the Health Ministry’s Yansanè noted. If there are not medicines in public health centres, the first place people turn to is the local market because they cannot afford to buy in pharmacies.

The lack of medicines in the public system hits the poorest people hardest, Andrè Enzanza of the World Health Organization in Guinea told IRIN.

The situation is serious. The most vulnerable people in the poorest zones are most severely affected, because there are no medicines in the public hospitals and health centres. 
 
np/aj source.www.irinnews.org

PAKISTAN: Sex workers speak out on HIV – facing police harassment

Photo: Tariq Saeed/IRIN

Sex workers face regular police harassment

KARACHI ,  – For the first time, female Pakistani sex workers have been given a chance to talk about the difficulties of protecting themselves from HIV, at a national meeting in the city of Karachi.

Although Pakistan is a low-prevalence country, there are fears that a concentrated epidemic among injecting drug users could spread to female sex workers and other high-risk groups, such as men who have sex with men.

Ministry of Health data from 2006 to 2007 showed that female sex workers were a high-risk group in at least 12 cities.

Less than a quarter of the 4,639 female sex workers surveyed reported using condoms consistently, and 10 percent had had sex with an injecting drug user in the past six months. Illiterate sex workers were much less likely to use condoms than those with some level of education.

The meeting in Karachi – National Consultation on HIV and Sex Work – organised by the National AIDS Control Programme and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), sought to improve HIV programming targeted at sex workers by consulting them.

“Although a few of our clients agree to wear a condom, the majority of them prefer sex otherwise,” said Nasree*, a female sex worker and peer educator who attended the conference.

“It is very hard for us to convince them to put on a condom, but I feel that a female condom would put us in a position where we can protect ourselves against HIV and sexually transmitted infections.” She added, however, that female condoms were hard to come by.

Another sex worker, Naila*, said legalising sex work would make it easier to protect their rights. “The police harass us for no reason; female sex workers who are working as outreach workers also get into trouble,” she commented.

“For a way out, many times sex workers succumb to pressure and end up having sex with the policemen; those who don’t, end up getting a beating and being violated forcefully.”

 

Daniel Baker, UNFPA’s country representative for Pakistan, said sex workers should have greater involvement in the design and implementation of HIV programmes. “The female sex workers have to be in there as managers, workers and leaders to benefit in the long run,” he said.

UNFPA’s Dr Safdar Kamal Pasha confirmed that the recommendations made by the sex workers who attended the meeting would be crucial to future programming.

“The female sex workers agreed that there should be vocational training and the means for alternative work opportunities for those who want to move out of sex work, as well as those who are past their prime and do not find sustainability in sex work,” he said.

Other recommendations included prioritising HIV testing and referral services for sex workers, and finding ways to curb the stigma and discrimination they faced.

*Not their real names

sj/kr/ks/he source.www.irinnews.org