Micronesia and Melanesia
Mikronesia and MelanesiaAREA, PERSONS AND PUBLIC HEALTHCARE
Pacific population is small, yet spread over an area that covers almost a fourth of the Earth's total area ('Figure 1'). Pacific civilizations are divided into three different groups. Polynesians, among them Hawaiians, Samoans, Tongans, Maori and Tahitians, are the best known and biggest population in the Pacific.
Other two groups are the people of Micronesia (small islands) and Melanesia (dark skins). Except for the inhabitants of the state of Hawaii, the Micronesians are in the northern part, the Melanesians in the southern part and the Polynesians in the centre. Research on the Micronesian and Melanesian civilizations has been filling volumes.
Information on the publics wellbeing of these populations is, however, much less widespread. Like many tribal civilizations around the globe, the concepts of the anthropogenic organization in these civilizations are all-encompassing. Man is seen as the mergam of bodies, minds and souls. Conventional treatment methods followed this notion.
In the early 16th centuries, when the discoverers of Spain came to these isles, they discovered that the foundation of the salvation system was formed by the spiritualist, masseuse, herbalist and vaporist. The particulars of the Micronesian and Melanesian healthcare system, however, have stayed included in the dominant regional powers in the last four hundred years.
Many of these groups followed the path of the Spanish, followed by the Germans and then the Japanese, and after the Second World War the Americans, Australians, French and English. Supply schemes clearly mirror this story, and the challenges associated with these supply schemes are plaguing these young countries fighting for autonomy and sustainability.
A small part of the world's total populace is made up of the Pacific peoples, including Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. The area known as Micronesia has the biggest centres of population Guam (154,623), Kiribati (91,985), the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (71,912) and the Federated States of Micronesia (133,134).
Slightly smaller are the Republic of the Marshall Islands (68,126), the Republic of Palau (18,766) and Nauru (11,845). Myelanesia has slightly bigger countries, among them Papua New Guinea (4,926,984), Fiji (832,494), the Solomon Islands (466,194), New Caledonia (201,816) and Vanuatu (189,618) source: Overall TFR of 6.6 per female child to the low point of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), 1.7 per female, the continuity of regional development is clear.
There are exemptions in Guam, which has a large US army base, and in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, which has a number of offshore producers. Existing healthcare delivery networks are poorly prepared to deal with these two conditions. With the emergence of new illnesses in this area, such as HIV/AIDS (human immunodeficiency viral / purchased immune deficiency disease) in Papua New Guinea and crystalline methamphetamines on the Mariana Islands, the supply system has neither the qualified suppliers nor the necessary equipment and material to deal with these issues.
During the entire Spanish, German and Japanese colonisation, both in Micronesia and Melanesia our healthcare system was geared to ensuring a healthier work force. Minimum available foods made it a matter of course in the people, and conventional practitioners as bone-layers, herbologists, masseurs and religious leaders, as in most tribal peoples.
Thus, plantation-like health services were offered, often by ship's physicians and others with minimum schooling. When the Japanese invaded the area after World War I, the colonisation of the area was ordered, with Japanese and indigenous colonists trained to increase the production of coppa (a by-product of coconut) and other cuisines.
In the bigger towns, there have been installations of drinking and sanitation and, in general, the general level of mortality from the many illnesses that have been spread to the island over the last thirty years has at least lowered the level of general government wellbeing, even though it has not been very good. World War II and the Israeli colonials' militarisation made the plantation less important and the need to retain a vibrant work force was allayed.
But when the Pacific Ocean conflict broke out, the country's infrastructures were devastated and supplies for the needy were secured. The USS Whidbey carried out an evaluation of the needs of the island' s inhabitants in the US Pacific at the beginning of the 1950s (through an intergovernmental mandate).
These results were appalling because there were many illnesses that were no longer a concern to the rest of the population. At the end of the US administration's period of war, the Saipan-based Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was formed, with responsibilities for all facets of American Pacific living, which included all of Micronesia except Kiribati and Nauru.
Supporting the Melanesians (including the Kiribati and Nauru people) in their spheres of activity, the Australia and New Zealand government provided healthcare and healthcare to the South Pacific, with the sole exemption of New Caledonia, which remains a French protectorate: Responsibilities for healthcare have been assigned to the local government, and with it the definition of healthcare spending and priority.
Since 1985, the revitalisation of general and community healthcare has taken place. Recently educated tribal healthcare professionals have filled the healthcare divisions of these three countries, and the reorganisation of healthcare policies has taken place through numerous consultations with the World Organisation for Sanitation (WHO) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
They are trying to set up basic medical centres in each country with the aim of reducing dependency on costly healthcare in hospitals. Nonetheless, the budget is small, the demand large and the system poor. The South Pacific region's move from a post-war system of warfare to a system run by various governmental agencies marked the rise of sovereignty for the various nationalities.
Utility schemes adopted by Member States' administrations were already geared towards the provision of mainstream healthcare and they had already made significant investments in the use of pharmacies as an important supply sourcing. The institutions were established through a number of international governmental agreements and the fundamental infrastructures in the field of human resources have taken form through various ADB lending and other agreements.
WHO has been very proactive in the South Pacific, as has the South Pacific Commission (now Secretariat for Pacific Communities), which has been at the forefront of the development of the WHO priority on regional healthcare literacy and the Ministry of Health's efforts to improve healthcare information and overall capacities. Only fifty years have passed before the Mikronesian and Melanesian populations have rebuilt their healthcare system.
But for the Pacific peoples the epidemiologic transformation is not over yet. Nursing schemes are not yet in place and the need for continuous assistance from the large industrialised countries is evident to anyone who has visited the area. of Melanesian anthropology. Anthropology in Micronesia.
Pacific Islands. State of the islands, 1999. WHO, Western Pacific Regional Office (2000). Collective health profile, 2000.