BACKGROUND Progress towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) amongst Pacific island countries (PICs) has seen mixed results. As focus shifts to formulation of new health-related development goals beyond 2015, there is a need for bringing community consultation into this process. For this purpose, Go4Health is a global consortium examining the development of these goals, wi...

A customized geographical information system (GIS) has been developed to support focal indoor residual spraying (IRS) operations as part of a scaled-up campaign to progressively eliminate malaria in Vanuatu. The aims of the GISbased spatial decision support system (SDSS) were to guide the planning, implementation and assessment of IRS at the household level. Additional aims of this study were t...

In disaster settings, women and girls face additional challenges in safely managing menstruation with confidence dignity. Assessing women’s girls’ needs preferences at country level prior to a assists Red Cross National Societies preparedness planning development of local menstrual hygiene management (MHM) kits for pre-positioning. This study, conducted Vanuatu, examined the experiences, concer...

A new species of pontoniine shrimp, Periclimenes nevillei, from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, is described and illustrated. The species is an associate of an antipatharian host, Cirripathes sp. A member of the Periclimenes brevicarpalis species group, to which a key is provided, it most closely resembles Periclimenes albolineatus Bruce & Coombes, 1997.

Haemophilus ducreyi causes chancroid and has recently been shown to be a significant cause of cutaneous lesions in tropical or subtropical regions where yaws is endemic. Here, we report the draft genome assemblies for 11 cutaneous strains of Haemophilus ducreyi, isolated from children in Vanuatu and Ghana.

Water Quality issues in many Pacific countries are rising, with the increase coastal populations and associated urban runoff but management requires contamination aquatic environment to be identified prioritised. In Vanuatu Solomon Islands there few laboratories resources assess for presence or impact of complex chemical contaminants. The extent marine is poorly described. Passive samplers were...

What are archerfish? Members of a family of seven species of perciform fish, all of the genus Toxotes. These opportunistic hunters successfully cope with widely varying environmental conditions and are broadly distributed in mangrove-lined estuaries and freshwater streams of southeast Asia, eastwards from Sri Lanka to Vanuatu (the former New Hebrides) and southwards from the Philippines to Nort...

Four of 391 Ni-Vanuatu women were infected with variants of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) Melanesian subtype C. These strains had env nucleotide sequences approximately 99% similar to each other and diverging from the main molecular subtypes of HTLV-1 by 6% to 9%. These strains were likely introduced during ancient human population movements in Melanesia.