Science and Survival in Paradise

Nineteenth-century European colonialists of Papua New Guinea brought western ideas and government, along with diseases that decimated the population. They received in exchange the killing endemic diseases of the country and all nineteenth-century settlers suffered severely. As doctors were few, and medicines did little, and as sick children could not attend school, sixty years of prewar medical services and education had little impact. However over those same years there was an expansion of medical science and the challenge in 1946 was to use these advances to reduce the high morbidity and mortality and ensure healthy children for educators to prepare for eventual national self sufficiency. Epidemiological research within the Public Health Department was an essential component in generating management and prevention strategies for all the significant diseases. The principal outcomes by 1975 were a raised life expectancy from 34 years to 56 years, a doubled population, many university graduates, and nationhood.