Current Activitites

 

Indepth Support Activities

1. Elias from Wosera HDSS Completes MSc studies in South Africa-2007-2008

   Elias Namosha was the first national from the Wosera HDSS to have been awarded a scholarship to undertake MSc programme (MSc. Population Based Field Epidemiology) in South Africa at the Witwatersrand University, School of Public Health.The financial support for the training was provided by the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Disease (TDR) Geneva. The second person (Seri Maraga) from the HDSS is currently undertaking studies in South Africa and she is funded by INDEPTH Network.

2. Elias and Su from Wosera HDSSs attend 8 AGM in Tazania

   The 8th INDEPTH Network, Annual General and Scientific Meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, the capital city of Tanzania (East Africa). The theme of the scientific conference was “INDEPTH@10: From Knowledge Generation to Improved Health Policy and Practice” which was held at the White Sands Hotel from 22-26th September 2008. Dr Suparat Phuanukoonnon and Elias from the Wosera HDSS attended this important event and presented their papers. The trip was funded by INDEPTH Network.

3. Wosera HDSS Database upgrade

   The Wosera HDSS database has recently been upgraded from FoxPro to MySQL, and this particular conversion took place in 2008 (October -November). The conversion of the old database system (FoxPro) to new system (MYSQL)was a requirement from the INDEPTH Data Sharing project that comprise 3 different INDEPTH sites-two in Asia (India, Thailand) and one in Oceania (Papua New Guinea-PNG). INDEPTH Network has made it possible by sending one Database and IT person (Neeraj Kashyap) from Vadu HDSS to come over to Wosera HDSS to do the data conversion.

Wosera HDSS Support Activities

1. Birth Outcome and Vaccination Survey

   Since the Wosera HDSS has got reliable longitudinal data at the community level, the Natioanl Health Department of PNG has requested the Wosera HDSS to carry out surveys to determine the death rates of children under 5 years at the community level, so that more accurate results can be generated from these surveys. Two surveys were carried out concurrently, Birth OutCome and Vaccination coverage survey within the HDSS. The aim of these surveys were simply to evaluate the impact of treatment coverage among pregnant mothers and children (<5yrs).

2. National Bednet Survey programme

   The Bednet survey program conducted in the Wosera HDSS is part of the National Department of Health programme aimed at evaluating and monitoring the bednet coverage in the country (PNG), and is funded by Global Fund. In order to get a clear picture of the bednet coverage at the national and local scale thus the bednet survey was also conducted within the Wosera HDSS from December 2008-February 2009. The survey took 6 weeks to get it completed.

3. The Wosera HDSS Annual Census Programme

   The annual census review within the Wosera HDSS is an ongoing activity since mid 1990, and normally starts in the beginning of each new year (March-April).After the annual census review, subsequent updates by village based reporters followed. During the update vital events like new births, deaths, new marriage, housing changes, migration (internal or external) were documented. However, future plans for the Wosera HDSS would be to look at incorporating other health surveys for instance looking at collecting data on health seeking behavior, socio-economic statutes, water quality control, and others.