page_title: Kirakira
section_title: Health Care
hierarchical_section_title: Kirakira / Health Care
caption_attribution_description: English: This photograph was taken one evening looking from the front entrance of Kirakira Hospital.
context_page_description: Kirakira the provincial capital of the Makira-Ulawa Province in Solomon Islands. Kirakira is located on the north coast of Makira, the largest island of the province. It has roads running 18 kilometres east to the Warihito River and 100 kilometres west to Maro'u Bay.
  The Kirakira Airport is served by Solomon Airlines, which provides flights to Honiara and other destinations.
  The airport is a grass strip and receives flights four times per week. Solomon Airlines, the national carrier, flies in and out of Kira Kira. It is a 45-minute flight from Honiara. Planes landing at the airport vary in size from a 6 seat Islander to a 36 seat Dash 8 twin turboprop. If there is too much rain, the airstrip can be too muddy to allow the planes to safely land.
  The capital, KiraKira, is a small township of approximately 3,500 people. The premier, Mr Thomas Weipe, is the local Makira-Ulawa representative for Solomon Islands parliament. His office is in KiraKira. KiraKira does have electricity and running water. The electricity is produced by a diesel generator. There are often periods where there is no power each day for 1–2 hours while the generator is maintained.
context_section_description: There is a small 30 bed hospital in KiraKira. 
   There is only one full-time government employed doctor based at the hospital, Dr Arnold Nguduame. He is supported by a team of about 40 dedicated nursing staff. There are two staff on a 2-year exchange program from Japan, that includes, Yasuko Chiba a registered nurse and Takuya Shizume, a physiotherapist. With very limited resources the hospital provides very effective health care to the community. Children have access to a comprehensive immunisation schedule and there are midwives who provide antenatal care and assist with deliveries. There is the capacity to manage infectious diseases such as TB and Malaria, which are common in KiraKira, with access to the appropriate medications to treat these infectious illnesses. Malaria remains an endemic problem on Kira Kira. Over the summer of 2013/2014, approximately 75% of confirmed malaria cases were due to Plasmodium vivax and 25% of cases were due to the more dangerous Plasmodium falciparum.
  The hospital does have plain radiography and an ultrasound machine and there is access to a very limited number of blood tests. The hospital's pharmacy has good supplies of antibiotics, anti-malarials and a limited supply of analgesics and cardiorespiratory medications. There are oxygen cylinders. Ketamine sedation is available and allows for the doctor on the Island to do quite a range of minor procedures such as drainage of abscesses and setting of simple fractures is available in KiraKira. There is an operating theatre. Complex cases are referred on to the National Referral Hospital in Honiara and can be transported on one of the four commercial flights that leaves the island each week. The Patients that present for care will often have been bought by their family for a medical consultation after trekking for two or three days to see the doctor. The most common cause of trauma in Kirakira is falling from a Coconut tree. From a young age children and men climb coconut trees to try and harvest a few coconuts or simply because they are thirsty and would like a drink. They are often 5 or 6 metres above the ground and when they fall unfortunately it is the cause of many broken bones.
  The population of Makira province is growing rapidly because of a very high birth rate. Each woman usually has an average of 6 children with a very high teenage pregnancy rate. There are efforts by the Health Service to encourage women after their 4th child to consider having a tubal ligation or for their husbands to have a vasectomy. There are also efforts to try and provide better sec education for the young girls to try and reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. There is still much to be done to try to help the people of Makira province make progress towards the Millennium Goals for Maternal and Child Health. Recently, a grant from AusAide allowed for completion of an eye clinic facility at the hospital. It was opened by Mr Andrew Byrnes, the Australian High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, on 28 February 2014.
  Sadly there are some conditions, readily treated in developed nations, such as renal failure and cancer, for which there is no treatment available in KiraKira.
caption: This photograph was taken one evening looking from the front entrance of Kirakira Hospital.
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