Covid-19 Response: Mission in Papua New Guinea

CADUS sends Medics team to Papua New Guinea to support local health system in fight against Covid-19.

The ten-member team from CADUS is flying to Papua New Guinea later this week. There, it will spend three weeks working with local health workers in the East New Britain region. The main focus will be on passing on their own experience in dealing with Covid-19 patients, which the medical staff have gained in Germany over the past two years.

In Papua New Guinea, where only about 1.5% of the population is vaccinated, the delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading almost unchecked. A weak health system and almost non-existent testing capacities do the rest and ensure that the already poorly equipped health facilities are now completely overloaded.

The mission for CADUS is mainly a so-called "shadowing mission" - that is, the medics take part in the local hospital routine and observe the processes in order to subsequently improve the procedures with their local colleagues and to achieve a long-term improvement of the conditions.
"We help in an acute emergency, but at the same time we strive to improve the situation on the ground in a sustainable way, beyond short-term aid," says Corinna Schäfer, co-managing director of CADUS. "In the current tense situation, all helping hands are important in Papua New Guinea. However, it's even more urgent to improve health care on the ground so that external help is no longer needed."

The team consists of five doctors, four nurses and our team lead, who have worked extensively with Covid-19 patients over the past two years. They will support local staff primarily with their expertise in testing, treating and isolating sick patient:s, and training them in improving general infection control.

 

Press contact:

Gesine Kästner

gesine@cadus.org