The health of adolescents in Papua New Guinea requires urgent attention. At stake is the health and wellbeing of a sizeable proportion of a generation. Adolescence is defined by the World Health Organization as occurring between the ages of 10 and 19 years. For many this can be a time of working through issues and progressing their education to become happy, well-rounded adults. But young people without adequate guidance and education are vulnerable to negative influences and risk-taking, and these can have adverse consequences for health and wellbeing in the short and long term. Many adolescents with chronic mental or physical health currently do not get the services they need. This paper briefly outlines disease burdens for adolescents, and the challenges for health and education services.
Health services administration, Child health services

Background: According to the Papua New Guinea (PNG) 2015 Annual Report on Child Morbidity and Mortality, neonatal conditions remained the second leading cause of hospital admission. We aimed to identify the common causes of neonatal admissions and deaths in the Eastern Highlands Provincial Hospital (EHPH) Special Care Nursery, and to identify interventions to improve neonatal outcomes in EHPH. Method: This was a retrospective descriptive study of neonatal admissions over a 5-year period: 2011 to 2015. Data collected from the ward admission register included demographic information, admission diagnoses, outcomes and causes of death where applicable. Results: From 2011 to 2015 there were 5177 neonatal admissions and 504 deaths with an overall case fatality rate of 9.7%. More than one admission diagnosis was recorded for some babies. The leading diagnoses were prolonged rupture of membranes (PROM) (25%), low birthweight (LBW) (20%), neonatal sepsis (NNS) (18%), meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) (16%) and birth asphyxia (BA) (14%). The leading causes of death by admission diagnosis were LBW (259/1013, 26%), BA (141/746, 19%), MAS (80/852, 9%), NNS (79/915, 9%) and babies born before arrival (BBA) (61/306, 20%). 76% of the admissions were hospital-born babies, but 46% of deaths were in the 24% of babies born outside the hospital. The independent predictors of neonatal death were LBW (odds ratio [OR] 7.31), BA (OR 5.94), health centre birth (OR 3.07) and village birth (OR 2.18). Conclusion: LBW, BA and being born outside of a hospital were the strongest risk factors for neonatal death in the Eastern Highlands during this 5-year period. For PNG to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of a neonatal mortality rate of 12 per 1000 live births, these 3 areas need to be addressed by multifaceted approaches within and outside the health sector.