scholarly journals Antibiotic Resistance in Pacific Island Countries and Territories: A Systematic Scoping Review

Antibiotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Foxlee ◽  
Nicola Townell ◽  
Lachlan McIver ◽  
Colleen Lau
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Extended Spectrum Beta Lactamase ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Future Policy

Several studies have investigated antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries, but to date little attention has been paid to the Pacific Islands Countries and Territories (PICTs). This study aims to review the literature on antibiotic resistance (ABR) in healthcare settings in PICTs to inform further research and future policy development for the region. Following the PRISMA-ScR checklist health databases and grey literature sources were searched. Three reviewers independently screened the literature for inclusion, data was extracted using a charting tool and the results were described and synthesised. Sixty-five studies about ABR in PICTs were identified and these are primarily about New Caledonia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Ten PICTs contributed the remaining 21 studies and nine PICTs were not represented. The predominant gram-positive pathogen reported was community-acquired methicillin resistant S. aureus and the rates of resistance ranged widely (>50% to <20%). Resistance reported in gram-negative pathogens was mainly associated with healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). Extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing K. pneumoniae isolates were reported in New Caledonia (3.4%) and Fiji (22%) and carbapenem resistant A. baumannii (CR-ab) isolates in the French Territories (24.8%). ABR is a problem in the PICTs, but the epidemiology requires further characterisation. Action on strengthening surveillance in PICTs needs to be prioritised so strategies to contain ABR can be fully realised.

Tabanidae of the Samoan Islands

1927 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eustace W. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Family ◽  
New Hebrides ◽  
The Phoenix

So far no species of this family of Diptera have been described or recorded from the Samoan Islands. The acquisition of a species of Tabanus by Dr. P. A. Buxton and Mr. G. H. E. Hopkins is therefore of great interest.The Tabanidae of the Pacific Islands undoubtedly form an eastward extension of the family from Papua through Melanesia to Fiji ; various species are known from the Solomons, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Loyalties and Fiji, but the family is unrecorded from Tonga or islands to the eastward of Samoa. The Tabanidae thus represent a Papuo-Melanesian element in the Polynesian fauna. It might be mentioned here that two species of Tabanus, T. sidneyensis and T. nigriventris, were described by Macquart from “ Sidney Island,” which has been supposed to be Sidney Island in the Phoenix group. This locality is certainly erroneous ; most of the Diptera described as coming from there are known now to be common Australian forms and these two species are in all probability also Australian. The only other species recorded from Polynesia proper is T. insularis, Walker, described from the Sandwich Islands ; this record is also certainly wrong, since the group is not known to occur in these islands, of which the fauna has been extensively collected.

scholarly journals TOWARDS A FLORA OF NEW GUINEA: OLEACEAE. PART 1. JASMINUM, LIGUSTRUM, MYXOPYRUM AND OLEA.

REINWARDTIA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Ruth Kiew
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Endemic Species ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Far North ◽  
Coastal Species ◽  
The Pacific

KIEW, R. 2020. Towards a Flora of New Guinea: Oleaceae. Part 1. Jasminum, Ligustrum, Myxopyrum and Olea. Reinwardtia 19(1): 1‒25. ‒‒ Oleaceae in New Guinea is represented by five genera and about 32 species, namely Chionanthus (about 16 species), Jasminum (10 species), Ligustrum (3 species), Myxopyrum (2 species) and Olea (1 species). A key to genera as well as descriptions of and keys to species of Jasminum, Ligustrum, Myxopyrum and Olea are provided. Of the three Ligustrum species, L. glomeratum is widespread throughout Malesia, L. novoguineense is endemic and L. parvifolium Kiew is a new endemic species. Six species of Jasminum are endemic (J. domatiigerum, J. gilgianum, J. magnificum, J. papuasicum, J. pipolyi and J. rupestre). Jasminum turneri just reaches the northern tip of Australia; of the two species from the Pacific Islands J. simplicifolium subsp. australiense just reaches SE Papua New Guinea and J. didymum, a coastal species, reaches into Malesia as far north as E Java; J. elongatum is widespread from Asia to Australia. Neither Myxopyrum species is endemic: M. nervosum subsp. nervosum extends from Peninsular Malaysia to Indonesian New Guinea, and M. ovatum from the Philippines to the Admiralty Islands. The sole species of Olea, O. paniculata, stretches from Java to Australia and New Caledonia. 

scholarly journals Australian students going to the Pacific Islands: International social work placements and learning across Oceania

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-69
Author(s):  
Jioji Ravulo
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
International Social Work ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Field Practice ◽  
Student Motivations ◽  
International Social

INTRODUCTION: This paper explores various issues pertinent to international social work practice, including its definition, how Western epistemologies affect international placements, barriers to effective placements and student motivations for undertaking practicum away from home. METHOD: Reviewed literature will be coupled with Australian student-participants’ evaluations of their experience in completing social work placements in Fiji and Samoa.  FINDINGS: A new model of approaching Pacific social work across Oceania emerges from the study. Entitled Tanoa Ni Veiqaravi(Serving Bowl of Serving Others), this culturally nuanced framework integrates both Western and Pacific social work perspectives to support professional practice, policy development and research across the region.CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations for the improvement of international field practice are offered. 

scholarly journals The goblin spider genus Opopaea in Australia and the Pacific islands (Araneae: Oonopidae)

2013 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 107-338
Author(s):  
Barbara Baehr ◽  
◽  
Mark Harvey ◽  
H.M. Smith ◽  
R. Ott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Records ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
New South ◽  
South Australia ◽  
New Combination ◽  
Australian Species ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
New Synonymy

The widespread and highly diverse goblin spider genus Opopaea Simon is a pantropical genus with biodiversity hotspots in Africa, Asia and Australia. We revise the Australian and Pacific species of the genus, provide redescriptions of the Australian species O. banksi (Hickman) and the Micronesian species O. foveolata Roewer, and new records of the pantropical O. deserticola Simon and O. concolor (Blackwall), as well as O. apicalis (Simon) which is newly transferred from Epectris, after the new synonymy of Epectris with Opopaea. The following species are provisionally transferred from Epectris to Opopaea, pending investigations into their generic affinities: O. conujaingensis (Xu), new combination from China; and O. mollis (Simon), new combination from Sri Lanka. Most Pacific Islands are inhabited by the four above-mentioned species but the following 15 newly described species are most likely native to the islands: from Fiji (O. fiji), Hawaii (O. hawaii), Palau (O. palau), New Caledonia (O. amieu, O. bicolor, O. burwelli, O. calcaris, O. goloboffi, O. monteithi, O. ndoua, O. platnicki, O. raveni, O. striata, O. touho, O. tuberculata). We treat the Australian Opopaea fauna and recognise 84 species including 71 new and 13 previously described species. The new Australian species include 21 species from New South Wales (O. acuminata, O. addsae, O. bushblitz, O. gerstmeieri, O. lebretoni, O. linea (also occurs in Queensland), O. magna, O. margaretehoffmannae, O. martini, O. michaeli, O. milledgei, O. nitens, O. ottoi, O. plana, O. simplex, O. sturt, O. suelewisae, O. sylvestrella, O. tenuis, O. ursulae, O. yorki); six from Northern Territory (O. ephemera, O. fishriver, O. gilliesi, O. johardingae, O. preecei, O. wongalara); 13 from Queensland (O. ameyi, O. brisbanensis, O. broadwater, O. carnarvon, O. carteri, O. chrisconwayi, O. douglasi, O. lambkinae, O. leichhardti, O. mcleani, O. proserpine, O. stanisici, O. ulrichi); three from South Australia (O. millbrook, O. mundy, O. stevensi); and 28 from Western Australia (O. aculeata, O. aurantiaca, O. billroth, O. callani, O. cowra, O. durranti, O. exoculata, O. flava, O. fragilis, O. framenaui, O. gracilis, O. gracillima, O. harmsi, O. johannae, O. julianneae, O. marangaroo, O. millstream, O. nadineae, O. pallida, O. pannawonica, O. pilbara, O. rixi, O. robusta, O. rugosa, O. subtilis, O. triangularis, O. wheelarra, O. whim). New records are provided for O. sown Baehr. Seven area-based keys to species are provided.

scholarly journals Public policy processes in the Pacific islands: A study of policy initiation, formulation and implementation in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and regional inter-governmental organisations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Muliagatele Ausiamanaia Potoae Roberts Aiafi
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Pacific Island Countries

<p>This thesis examines the manner in which public policies are initiated, formulated and implemented in Pacific island countries and regional organisations, and determines the factors which are most critical for their effective implementation. It employs narrative inquiry and grounded theory approaches, supported by the computer software Nvivo, to data collection and analysis of case studies from Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, and key regional inter-governmental organisations. 128 semi-structured interviews were drawn from ten policy cases (three for each of the Pacific island countries and one from the Region’s Pacific Plan), together with a general narrative of the policy environment spread across all four contexts. A social constructionism worldview allows for the grounding of the research and its findings for both subject and context of the study. Participant voices are utilised as rich descriptions of policy processes, triangulation provided by documentary analyses and participant observation.   Motivating this inquiry was my observation of the lack of visibly significant improvements in service delivery in Samoa and other Pacific island countries. These perceptions echoed criticisms in the literature about the slow improvement of development performance across the region despite high levels of foreign aid. Yet, such assessments often lack a solid understanding about the actual processes of public policy in the Pacific islands. Prevailing theories of public policy have remained largely westernised, and lenses to development primarily ethnocentric.  Accordingly, this study’s findings shed light on the strengths and limitations of current public policy and development scholarships evident from Pacific public policy experiences. There are five key findings: First, policy processes have remained heavily top-down, shaped significantly by political and external interests, and where society has been the neglected element. In essence, the genesis of public policy has been insufficiently rooted in the context, problems and needs to which policies have been directed. This constitutes a significant democratic and development deficit that must be addressed in ongoing public policy development. Second, the use of evidence-based policy has been limited. While existing formal policies were often those transferred from elsewhere, and which do not fit well in the receiving context and culture, the practices were ad hoc, driven by various ideological or social constructions. Third, the success of policy and its implementation depends on mutually reinforcing factors of policy culture and stakeholder support, capability, implementation modality and leadership. These factors are critical for ensuring that participation, partnership, ownership, understanding and learning are built into policy processes. Fourth, the integration of these elements into ongoing public policy development of Pacific island countries and the region requires a fundamental shift of focus about the role of society, particularly the adaptive capability of indigenous systems to legitimise notions of public policy in state-society relationships. Fifth, following a meta-analysis and synthesis of the four (country) case studies, the overall findings are conceptualised into a (explanatory) model of public policy. This model is a heuristic one that could be used when thinking about adopting and designing public policies in the Pacific islands capable of effective implementation. The model could be applied to non-Pacific small island developing states.  Finally, the model provides a framework for discussing the normative implications of this study’s findings for public policy and development theory, practice and needed future research, and yielded five broad recommendations for future improvement: (1) the centrality of context; (2) societal needs incorporated into the public policy space; (3) focus on the political dimensions of further reforms; (4) international support that is more appreciative of context; and (5) needed changes to the way in which we think about development public policy.</p>

South Pacific Commission

1952 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-482
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
The South ◽  
Work Program ◽  
The Pacific

From April 28 to May 7, 1952 the ninth session of the South Pacific Commission was held in Noumea, New Caledonia.1 The session, which was primarily concerned with administrative matters, was under the chairmanship of N. A. J. de Voogd (Netherlands). As a result of agreement by member governments at the eighth session to include Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands within the scope of the Commission, at the ninth session it was agreed unanimously to extend Commission activities to embrace these territories. Assurances of cooperation in Commission activities were given on behalf of both territories by the Acting Senior Commissioner for the United States (Leebrick) and the Secretary of Guam (Herman). Special aspects of its work program were reviewed by the Commission. The printing of two project reports dealing with the area was authorized: one, on economic development of coral atolls covered a survey made for the Commission in 1951 in the Gilbert Islands and the other was concerned with the possibilities of expanding the cacao industry in the area.

scholarly journals Structure in the variability of the basic reproductive number (R0) for Zika epidemics in the Pacific islands

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Champagne ◽  
David Georges Salthouse ◽  
Richard Paul ◽  
Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau ◽  
Benjamin Roche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
French Polynesia ◽  
Basic Reproductive Number ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Reproductive Number ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Seroprevalence Data

Before the outbreak that reached the Americas in 2015, Zika virus (ZIKV) circulated in Asia and the Pacific: these past epidemics can be highly informative on the key parameters driving virus transmission, such as the basic reproduction number (R0). We compare two compartmental models with different mosquito representations, using surveillance and seroprevalence data for several ZIKV outbreaks in Pacific islands (Yap, Micronesia 2007, Tahiti and Moorea, French Polynesia 2013-2014, New Caledonia 2014). Models are estimated in a stochastic framework with recent Bayesian techniques. R0 for the Pacific ZIKV epidemics is estimated between 1.5 and 4.1, the smallest islands displaying higher and more variable values. This relatively low range of R0 suggests that intervention strategies developed for other flaviviruses should enable as, if not more effective control of ZIKV. Our study also highlights the importance of seroprevalence data for precise quantitative analysis of pathogen propagation, to design prevention and control strategies.

First record of the genus Umimayanthus from Palau and Micronesia

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Montenegro ◽  
Julien Lorion ◽  
James Davis Reimer
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Red Sea ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
First Record ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Family

Until recently, the only sponge-associated genera in the order Zoantharia wereParazoanthus(family Parazoanthidae),EpizoanthusandThoracactis(family Epizoanthidae), both within the suborder Macrocnemina. The taxonomy of the genusParazoanthus,as originally described, has been undergoing revision since 2010, with several species, genera and even families described. In 2015, multiple molecular markers were used in combination with morphological characteristics to erect the genusUmimayanthusinside the family Parazoanthidae. It included three species described from southern Japan, with other records for some of the species from the Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia and the Red Sea. However, little is known of its distribution in the Pacific Islands. Here we report on the finding ofUmimayanthusspecimens in Palau, Micronesia, representing the first records for this region. A total of 32 specimens ofUmimayanthuswere collected from seven different locations; eight of the specimens were identified asUmimayanthus chanpuru,while the remaining 24 colonies were only identified to genus level.

scholarly journals Eragrostis ciliaris (gophertail lovegrass).

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Angel Duenas-Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Islands ◽  
New Caledonia ◽  
Perennial Grass ◽  
Hawaiian Islands ◽  
Marshall Islands ◽  
Cultivated Land ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Tropical America

Abstract Eragrostis ciliaris is a loose-clump-forming, annual to short-lived perennial grass, native to the Paleotropics. It is naturalized in parts of tropical America and the Pacific Islands. It is a common weed on roadsides cultivated land and disturbed sites. E. ciliaris is included in the list of weeds affecting rice crops globally. It is cited as invasive in some Pacific islands (Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia), the Hawaiian Islands and in Cuba.

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