Health in Papua New Guinea


Life expectancy in Papua New Guinea at birth was 64 years for men in 2016 and 68 for women.
Government expenditure health in 2014 accounted for 9.5% of total government spending, with total health expenditure equating to 4.3% of GDP. There were five physicians per 100,000 people in the early 2000s.
The 2010 maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births for Papua New Guinea was 250. This is compared with 311.9 in 2008 and 476.3 in 1990. The under-5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births is 69 and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under-5s' mortality is 37. In Papua New Guinea, the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is 1 and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women is 1 in 94.

Communicable Diseases

The communicable diseases that cause the most deaths in PNG are lower respiratory infections such as tuberculosis. Lower respiratory infections are the fourth leading cause of death in PNG.

Malaria

is the leading cause of illness and 27th leading cause of death in PNG. In 2003, the most recently reported year, 70,226 cases of laboratory-confirmed malaria were reported, along with 537 deaths. A total of 1,729,697 cases were probable. Other communicable diseases, tuberculosis, diarrhoeal diseases, and acute respiratory disease are also big problems.

HIV/AIDS

Papua New Guinea has the highest incidence of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific region and is the fourth country in the Asia Pacific region to fit the criteria for a generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic. Lack of HIV/AIDS awareness is a major problem, especially in rural areas.

Poliomyelitis

In 2018 there was a poliomyelitis outbreak that had 10 confirmed cases in the Morobe Province. Previously, there had been no confirmed cases since 2000 when the World Health Organization declared that Papua New Guinea was polio-free.