Papua New Guinea's East New Britain Provincial Health Authority is aiming to eliminate diseases such as yaws, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted worm infections and trachoma.
It has launched its Mass Drug Administration to eliminate neglected tropical diseases.
East New Britain Mass Drug Administration underway Photo: supplied
Those diseases not only claimed lives but affected all ages and had major social and economic impacts, said National Department of Health official Daoni Esorom.
Therefore, the National Department of Health, working with the World Health Organisation, and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, was gearing up to eliminate those diseases.
"We will vigorously eliminate the disfiguring diseases from the island region to the Momase and the rest of the regions," Dr Esorom said.
In the Western Pacific Region, more than 10 countries have successfully eliminated lymphatic filariasis or elephantiasis, mostly recently in Kiribati, earlier this year.