15 Nov 2004

Getting anti-malaria drugs to remote areas in PNG the key problem - World Health Organisation

7:55 pm on 15 November 2004

Getting anti-malaria drugs to people in remote areas of Papua New Guinea is the key problem facing the fight against the disease.

The World Health Organisation has warned that anti-malaria drugs will be in short supply throughout the western Pacific for several months because of increasing demand.

But WHO's PNG director, Dr Yves Renault, says the main problem i that country is getting the drugs to affected people in remote areas.

"We are not expecting a problem in the main centres, the problem is in remote areas, and little villages,.......the main part of the population in PNG lives in remote areas."