Description

The world’s most vulnerable children need your support now, more than ever. Children living in extreme poverty in Papua New Guinea, where the health system was already stretched beyond capacity before the COVID-19 pandemic began, are at a higher risk than ever before.

In PNG, even diseases that can be easily identified, like measles, polio and tuberculosis (TB), can go undiagnosed and untreated in children, because their parents have no way to access the information and healthcare they need.

There is a severe shortage of doctors in PNG, especially in remote areas. Community health workers at local health clinics can only treat basic injuries and illnesses.

Many children miss out on crucial and life-saving immunisations because their parents can’t access remote health centres, or they aren’t aware that a vaccine is available. Some children are too unwell to be immunised when an outreach clinic visits their local area and miss this valuable chance to protect their health.

All this means that infectious disease can spread through communities with dizzying speed. In recent years, outbreaks of both measles and polio have overwhelmed PNG’s already overstretched health system – a system that is not equipped to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the chaos caused by COVID-19, children in PNG will still be living with the constant threat of debilitating disease and permanent disability. Some children will not survive their illness. No child should spend their childhood battling infectious disease.