Solomon Islands - Health

Poor standards of general hygiene and inadequate sanitation continue to make malaria and tuberculosis endemic. Adequate sanitation was available to 60% of the entire Solomon Islands population in 1989–90.

Infant mortality was estimated at 23.7 deaths per 1,000 live births as of 2002; average life expectancy wa an estimated 72 years for both men and women. As of 2002, the crude birth rate and overall mortality rate were estimated at, respectively, 33.3 and 4.2 per 1,000 people. The immunization rates for children under one year were as follows in 1995: diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 69%; polio, 68%; measles, 68%; and tuberculosis, 77%.

The overwhelmingly most prevalent disease reported was malaria. Reports documented 153,359 cases in 1992. The incidence per 1,000 people was 437.6 in 1991. Many of the five island nations in the South Pacific have insufficient vitamin A levels. The incidence of xerophthalmia was present in 1.55% of all children in the Solomon Islands.

In 1999, 15 new cases of leprosy were reported by the World Health Organization, which is advocating multidrug therapy and screening of people in high risk areas to counter the spread of this disease that was once believed to have been eradicated.