Army helps village lift disease threat

Press, 19 November 1977, Page 7

Army helps village lift disease threat

From Disease carried by the mosquito presents much less of a threat to about 250 Fijian villagers than it did a week ago. These people live in the village of Vumicau. at the seaward end of the lowlying Navua River delta on Viti Levu. Further relief from the danger of disease arrived there last week with the medical detachment from the Royal New Zealand Army Corps. Sited near the river's mouth on a tidal inlet Vumicau is only half a metre from high-water level. Surrounded by mud flats and swampy ground the village is subject each night to siege by hordes of mosquitos. These are feared by villagers and health authorities alike as carriers of silariasis and dengue fever. Yellow fever, that' is malaria, is also potentially’ carried by mosquitos although Fiji is so tar free from that disease. The New Zealand’health team of 10 arrived in Fiji last week as part of exercise Tropic Dawn 41. While other elements of the New Zealand unit were exdrcising in the tropical jungle the health team was carrying out a public-health programme at Vumicau. Team members varied

MARC BEXSEAIEX in J from army medical men to its commander Captain W. D. Wallace a Territotil Force officer and senior health inspector in Dunedin. Also included was a carpenter whose special knowledge was needed in the most time consuming of the teams’ task, that of building lavatory facilities. During the eight days the New Zealanders were in Vumicau they completed almost 30 concrete tap-shower facilities. Residents of Vumicau like those of 100 similar coastal Fijian cillages. live mostly in primitive bamboo bures with earth floors. They are among the lucky exceptions, however. in that their village is supplied with running water piped from a nearby agricultural irrigation scheme. In spile of this, drainage is minimal, waste water? collecting in low points? around the village — idea! ’. areas for iWosqtiito breeding. Completion of the tapshower facilities included efficient drainage of water which would otherwise have lain on the ground and the clearing of the open drain which runs through the village. All these tasks were carried out in the most simple manner, concrete being mixed by han'd

ill using low-quality’ shingle ; carried by wheelbarrow. ; New Zealand’s only assistance was the provi- i sion of the labour and ex- < peruse with the team | quartered in the village it- i self. Primitive water-seal lavatories built under Fiji’s own public-health programme were also completed or repaired by the New Zealand team. These • lavatories are not linked ■ to the water reticulation system as flush toilets ’ would overtax the already I strained drainage. A study of mosquito ! breeding areas was also I done and the results I plotted with other results i of a sanitary survey. According to Captain ; Wallace such tasks as those carried out last week are not "high pow- | ere,, or glamorous." But in I addition to providing the i villagers with aid they are I also valuable training in I problems of tropical • health. Village aid programmes I of the Tropic Dawn 41 I type ha e been carried out ! twice yearly for the last three years. Experience gained by the men who have worked in these villages will help safeguard the health of New Zealand troops in the tropics.