Oxfam is a leading international aid agency working with communities around the world for solutions to poverty and social injustice.
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Tuesday 9 February 2010
PNG cholera outbreak: 2,000 cases mean resources are
desperately stretched
The spread of cholera to 2,000 people in Papua New Guinea has highlighted the urgent need for
additional support to tackle the root causes of the outbreak, international aid agency Oxfam said
today.
The first outbreak of cholera in PNG was reported in August last year, and the World Health
Organisation has confirmed that 2,000 people have been affected and 50 people have been killed
as a result of the outbreak.
Oxfam’s Sepik Program Manager Andrew Rankin said unless there was greater support to
provide people with much needed clean water and sanitation, the water-based disease would
continue to spread in PNG.
“Cholera has now been present in PNG for more than six months. Oxfam is responding in the
Sepik region by providing clean water, hygiene information and emergency supplies where we
can, but our resources are stretched.”
“We need to tackle the root causes that mean cholera continues to spread. Oxfam is now looking
to focus on long term solutions to water and sanitation problems in the Sepik, to help reduce
health risks for vulnerable communities into the future”.
“Communities affected by this issue are remote and difficult to reach. People live on marshlands,
over water that is exposed to frequent contamination. Tackling the root causes of the outbreak in
conditions like these is difficult, time consuming and costly,” Mr Rankin said.
Oxfam has received some emergency funding support from the Australian and New Zealand
governments for its work in PNG, which has been welcome. But efforts to provide sustainable
improvements to communities will not be possible without long- term funding to properly address
this issue at a community level.
“We urgently need more support from governments, both local and international, to properly
tackle this disease. Otherwise there is a real danger that cholera will continue to spread and
become a recurring problem in Papua New Guinea,” Mr Rankin said.
For more information contact:
In Australia: Kate Thwaites +61 407 515 559. katethwaites@oxfam.org.au
In PNG: Andrew Rankin, Sepik Program Manager, Oxfam International
information on our programs.
Media Release
NEWS 
