Elem, on the banks on the mighty Yuat River, is a tiny community nestled in the pristine jungle typical of the area. Its small aid post is the only health care for miles around. Nearly at sea level, it is extremely hot terrain, but breathtakingly beautiful to behold.
In 2000, a medical patrol found 95% of the community were malaria smear positive at the time and enlarged spleens were present in over 50%. The average hemoglobin on samples taken was 7.5g/dl, meaning nearly the entire community was struggling daily under the burden of continuous malaria infection, in most cases reducing their blood “strength” by nearly half. Other medical problems include TB and fungal skin infections common in hot conditions of the Sepik flat country.
Elem is a government aid post, and intermittently receives government health workers, typically from the East Sepik Provincial Health Authority (PHA) and occasionally from Enga PHA. This site is included in the hospitals regular aerial patrols with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) and may get visited once or twice a year depending on the condition of its air strip.
Since early 2000s, the local economy has shifted away from subsistence farming and toward alluvial gold mining. This change has altered the disease pattern in this area: while malaria remains highly prevalent, malnutrition and other social-health issues are becoming increasingly common.