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CASE REPORT
Barriers to healthcare for female patients in Papua New Guinea
  1. Robin Klaver1,
  2. Jennifer Ruth Coe2
  1. 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Tari Provincial Hospital, Tari, Papua New Guinea
  2. 2Department of Anaesthetics, Tari Provincial Hospital, Tari, Papua New Guinea
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jennifer Ruth Coe, jennifercoe1{at}nhs.net

Summary

A 25-year-old woman presented to hospital in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) with a 3-year history of increasing abdominal distension, amenorrhoea and syncope. Ultrasound showed a large unilocular ovarian cyst. During her work-up, she was found to be HIV positive. She was treated with antiretroviral therapy, and once her CD4 count improved, she underwent a laparotomy and removal of the ovarian cyst with immediate improvement in symptoms. PNG has high levels of HIV particularly in young women and children.1 This is partly due to a lack of screening and treatment facilities and partly due to significant gender discrimination. PNG is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for females; women are treated as second-class citizens with few human rights or access to services such as healthcare.2 Rape, sexual assault and domestic violence are common, and their lives are dictated to them by their husbands or male relatives.2 3 The lack of healthcare resources and significant levels of gender discrimination meant that this patient had a delayed presentation resulting in potentially grave complications.

  • global health
  • health economics
  • HIV / AIDS
  • domestic violence

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Footnotes

  • Contributors Both authors were involved in managing the patient and the case in Tari Hospital, and both were involved in writing of the report. JRC concentrated on the actual case report and RK concentrated on the global health problems and analysis.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.