We have managed to get the system up and running plus we also had an Alvarion certified systems field engineer come over to Vila to run a hands on session with us on the new system and help us set up the voice (access gateway) part of the system. It is truely impressive to see it all come together and might I add the way to the future for communication in our islands; IP telephony.

I would recommend this hands on session to anyone wanting to setup their wireless broadband network; Alvarion CASS BreezeMAX TDD (DV/EMS) and DUET. TVL can now offer both fast internet and telephone services with our WiMAX application.

I hope the government and the ministry of health do something about this latest revelation because we simply cannot keep moving like this, something has got to give.

by Rita Bill

Woman’s Column, The Vanuatu Independent 07 October 07

Cervical cancer kills more than 288,000 women each year worldwide according to the Epidemiology and Cancer Registry Unit at the Institut Catala d’Oncologia. Disproportionately it affects most vulnerable women, in developing countries such as Vanuatu, where women face many barriers to early detection and treatment of the disease.

Cervical cancer is a major problem among women in Vanuatu because there is currently no cervical cancer screening program, due to the lack of funding, and resulting in the loss of many lives.

Wesley Research Institute researchers, led by Chief Investigators Dr Margaret McAdam and Dr Scott Kitchener, were in Port Vila, in January and were studying a rapid, low cost method of detection of cervical cancer in women, a method called VIA

(Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid) and VILI

(Visual Inspection with Lugols Iodine). This was a screening program which involved 500 women from around Port Vila.

It was after six months of the first phase of the pilot survey, that Dr Margaret McAdam from Brisbane Women’s Health Medical Practice, in Australia, wrote a letter to the minister of health in Vanuatu to comment on the fine work of the ministry of health on the recent cervical cancer project. She also observed that the project has proved that there’s a demand for a cervical cancer clinic in Vanuatu.

Vanuatu need not wait for the health infrastructure to approach that of an industrialised nation but can start saving lives immediately. Evaluating the burden of disease in the country and helping decision makers to formulate recommendations on cervical cancer prevention, would follow, including the implementation of the newly developed HPV vaccines.

So, what is cervical cancer ?

Cancer of the cervix occurs when the cells of the cervix change in a way that leads to abnormal growth and invasion of other tissues or organs of the body. It also means that the cancer affects the deeper tissues of the cervix and may spread to other parts of the body.

Causes

Now, Cervical cancer begins with abnormal changes in the cervical tissue. The risk of developing these abnormal changes has been associated with certain factors, including previous infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), early sexual contact, multiple sexual partners, cigarette smoking, and taking oral contraceptives (birth control pills) for longer than 5 years.

Symptoms

As in many cancers, you may have no signs or symptoms of cervical cancer until it has progressed to a dangerous stage. The most common symptom is abnormal vaginal bleeding other than during menstruation.

Prevention

The key to preventing invasive cervical cancer is to detect any cell changes early, before they become cancerous.

An important reason for the higher incidence in Vanuatu is the lack of effective screening programs to detect precancerous conditions and treat them before they progress to cancer.

Vanuatu has a population of 62,489 women aged 15 years and older (Survey of 2005) who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year 14 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 8 die from the disease.

Cervical cancer ranks as the second most frequent cancer in women in Vanuatu, and the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age.

Annual numbers of new cases of cervical cancer according to age in Vanuatu 15 – 44: we have 6 new cases annually, from 45 – 54: we have 3 new cases annually and from 55 – 64: we have 4 new cases annually.

Out of every 500 women screened in Vanuatu, recently, 45 women will have abnormal cells that have the potential to become cancerous and could be treated to prevent the cervical cancer forming, 5 women will already have cancer and will die without treatment, and that’s the lives of 50 mothers potentially saved for every 500 women screened.

Cervical cancer has a major impact on women in Vanuatu. If it is not detected and treated early, cervical cancer is nearly always fatal. The programs are complex and costly to run and have failed to reach a significant proportion of women in countries like Vanuatu where health systems and infrastructure are poor.

Thus, the government of Vanuatu must initiate something by strengthening the guidance for health policy implementation of primary and secondary cervical cancer prevention strategies in Vanuatu and also implement usage of the newly developed HPV vaccines.

Brisbane researchers who tackled cervical cancer in Vanuatu (including the Australian scientist who developed the world’s first cervical cancer vaccine), have confirmed that this project will provide a comprehensive model for cervical cancer screening and prevention in Vanuatu. Vanuatu is the first country around the South Pacific to be involved in the cervical cancer screening program and all island countries are watching Vanuatu’s involvement with this innovative program.

The second phase of the project is the vaccination of young girls who are virgins or not sexually active yet, in order to prevent them catching the human papillomavirus virus (HPV).

The program also has the benefit of treating sexually transmitted infections detected on examination. Thus reducing infertility. It helps prevent pregnancy complications and provides opportunity to measure blood pressure, blood sugar and weight to give appropriate lifestyle advice, to try and prevent future heart disease and diabetes. This is truly a “whole woman” program aimed at reducing many diseases that affect women.

This is a lot of money, but the government has no choice than to save our mothers because the effects on society when a mother dies are devastating on the husband, children, extended families and friends. Reducing its effects will have far reaching benefits for all Vanuatu as women remain as productive members of their communities, caring for the aged and sick, raising well adjusted children who grow up to contribute to the betterment of Vanuatu.

80% of women who die of cervical cancer die in countries like Vanuatu because there is no cervical cancer screening. Perhaps we could honour our mothers in a different way this year, especially for our mothers who have passed away.

When a mother lives:

Husbands and children don’t lose their wives and mothers,

Children have their mothers to nurture and love them during their lives,

Sisters and brothers keep their sister lifelong for support and encouragement,

Parents keep their daughters to care and comfort them in their old age.

Friends continue to share the joy of their friendship,

Work associates continue the working camaraderie which brings richness and joy to the day, and grandchildren that will have doting grandmothers to love and spoil them as they grow up.

And so the circle of love that a mother brings to those around her continues to go on and on, when a mother is saved.

Think about a Mothers’ Day gift donation to support the mothers of Vanuatu Cervical Cancer Screening project and help save their lives.

They have no one else to turn to for help except a country and its people who are much more fortunate than themselves.

Anything you can do to help will be a gift that keeps on giving for generations to come, when a mother’s life is saved.

We supplied the connection through our WiMAX base station at Ellouck; we were able to use the CPE-Si Subscriber unit, this was possible primarily due to the technology WIMAX uses to receive and transmit signals and also the location of the festival. On a technical point of view the installation was smooth sailing since no supporting poles were needed to mount the antennae and no hassles with strapping and terminating the long cables. It was all a matter of plug ‘n’ play and minimal time consumed for installation.

CPE-Si Subscriber unit

It is good to see TVL playing its part in providing a path for locals to explore and imagine the possibilities technology has to offer. This is yet again another avenue to develop; in our developing country.

We are only streaming audio this year maybe in years to come we may be able to stream both audio and video. The festival will be on tonight, tomorrow night through till sunday for the zion fest…enjoy

                                   

Getting fast internet on demand around Port Vila and surrounding suburbs can be a very tricky task, some places even impossible. The broadband network run by TVL is mainly concentrated in the CBD through the existing ancient copper cable network. This, at times is very slow and unreliable. TVL has ventured into wireless broadband (WiMAX) as an alternative solution to provide broadband internet service to residents and commercial enterprises in the rural areas of Efate albeit within a 17km radius of the two telecom towers in Vila.

Telecom Vanuatu Limited is working towards extending its WiMAX network further into the rural areas of Efate and other islands in the country. There currently is the 3.5GHz Alvarion Breezemax system running for the past 7 months however there has been a few complaints coming from a satellite application company that a channel on their C band has had some interference with it since TVL installed their WiMAX equipments. A few tests were done to try to confirm this accusation and also determine the soucre of this noise, it was found that the WiMAX equipments were not the source of this noise but TVL has taken measures to change its frequency range from the current 3.5GHz frequency to 2.3GHz as ITU is also thinking of relocating the 3.5GHz range else where.

The new 2.3GHz WiMAX equipments have arrived in Vila from the Israeli manufacturer; Alvarion, and are ready for deployment. So I’m just putting the word out there for anybody traveling or thinking to relocate to Vila that YES!!! wireless broadband is available and rapidly picking up momentum in Vanuatu.

Now you can either buy your equipment overseas and then rent the broadband internet package from TVL or you can just purchase the subscriber units from TVL. I suggest you buy the equipment overseas to make things easier. Here is a picture of the equipment TVL currently supports:

It is good to see locals getting international exposure and flagging the Vanuatu flag around the globe. Hope to see you guys making it on to the “big stage”.

Here is a link to their myspace website:

http://www.myspace.com/sunshinersfromvanuatu

Here are a few of their video clips on youtube