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In a waiting room at Gerehu General Hospital in Port Moresby, red, gold and black balloons – the colors of the country's flag – adorn the walls during Independence Day.
Around the sweltering heat, nurses administer drops of vaccine in cold boxes. About 30 adults and children line up in a canvas tent, waiting for their dose to protect themselves against polio, a disease Donald Lippert, a Catholic bishop of the South Highlands, characterized as "a beast hidden in the dark, ready to spring. "
The number of confirmed cases increased from 10 at the beginning of the week to 12 and health authorities confirmed that the disease had reached the capital, Port Moresby, after a six-year-old boy's diagnosis in an area called Five Mile. The other affected children are in remote areas of the country and the first case appeared in June.
The health crisis has cast a shadow over the developing country of the Pacific Islands, which is preparing to celebrate Sunday the 43rd anniversary of its independence from Australia. Tribal dance, agricultural shows and flag raising ceremonies are part of the planned festivities.
Nason Aguleko, an accountant, took his 16-year-old daughter, Catherine, with her grandmother.
The family plans to travel to Australia at Christmas to spend time with loved ones. A vaccination against polio is now part of the visa requirements.
Aguleko remembers lives ruined by illness as he grew up. "I've seen a lot of people paralyzed by polio over the years," said the father of three at The Guardian. "If someone is affected, you can not support yourself, there is no independence and dreams and aspirations are lost."
The World Health Organization declared PNG polio free in 2000. For architect Rita Karaie, 27, and Papua New Guinea's Generation Y, little is known about the consequences of the disease. "I do not even know what the symptoms are," she says, aligning herself.
Sister Kenegalato Waligia is a nurse at the hospital and her team vaccinated 50 to 80 babies each morning. "When the outbreak appeared, we started to see a lot of panicked mothers," she says. She says more resources are needed to increase PNG vaccination rates.
In recent years, funding has been cut from mobile clinics to remote areas and villages to vaccinate children. However, these clinics should receive a major boost in the coming months.
The PNG government has launched a vaccination program for 3.3 million children under 15 in the capital on 24 September and nationwide from 1 October.
Health care funding has sparked some resentment in the community, while the Papua New Guinea government is recruiting millions to welcome world leaders from the Apec summit in November.
Jennifer Elsibai, regional director of Save the Children for the Pacific, tells the Guardian. "I think the country is facing really incredible budget constraints, and APEC is a very obvious use of the government budget and it's an easy place to direct your anger, especially if you're a member of an easy community. that does not meet your needs.
It attributes the epidemic largely to vaccination rates, which have fallen to less than 50% in some parts of the country.
Polio is an infectious disease transmitted through contact with food and water contaminated with the feces or saliva of infected persons. It is rare in most parts of the world because of the success of immunization programs, but Somalia, Kenya, Congo, and Nigeria have recently experienced outbreaks.
Efforts to eradicate poliomyelitis in Afghanistan and Pakistan have been thwarted by political instability.
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