Great exposure for PNG’s medical team

It was their first time to respond to an outbreak in a foreign country, and PNG’s emergency response team wholeheartedly welcomed the experience gained from Samoa.

PNG’s 13-member emergency medical team supported the mass vaccination campaign upon the Samoan government’s invitation.

The team, comprising of 11 nurses, 1 medical officer and 1 logistics officer, were all smiles when they arrived in Port Moresby on Monday 20th February.

For some nurses, it was their first time to respond to such a call out under the direction of the PNG health department. They said they were able to help the local health teams and treat as many people as possible despite some challenging situations.

Expanded program officer for immunisation (NDoH), Dr Mathias Bauri, described their experience as ‘overwhelming’.

“We imparted some knowledge, we gained some knowledge and also working for another country was very good for us; it was good exposure,” he said.

Dr Bauri said they stayed for 29 days where they took part in the vaccination program.

Among the team was a policy and research officer of the national health services standards, Kimberley Kawapuro, who worked tirelessly like her colleagues to ensure logistics were available for vaccination.

“With the clinical standards it was obvious that our nurses are highly trained so they had to impart their knowledge to our counterparts there in Samoa. Language barrier was really a big challenge but we all worked as a team,” she shared.

The team was sent in the middle of the Christmas holidays after Samoa’s measles outbreak began in September 2019.

By mid-December, already 2 percent of Samoa’s population was infected with measles.

The team was sent there and divided into different units where they served according to their medical specialty.

(Article by Jim John – third year UPNG Journalism student)

Author: 
Jim John