Health

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Awareness raising in Nauru.
Photographer: Lorrie Graham

People in the Pacific would appear to have the best that nature can offer—fresh fish, tropical fruits and vegetables. Many are fit and well but many others suffer from conditions generally linked to western diets such as high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Malaria and tuberculosis are also common. Increasingly HIV/AIDS is not merely a threat, but very real. Papua New Guinea has a generalised epidemic with a prevalence estimated of one to two per cent.