ABSTRACT
Ten of the initial post-1975 appointees to chairs of public health and/or general practice in Australian and New Zealand universities had significant experience in Papua New Guinea. They had held often combined positions that covered academic, clinical, public health, and research arenas, most being retained when they returned to Australia and New Zealand. Their experiences in the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea, now known as Papua New Guinea, are reviewed here, and how each translated that experience in the development of departments in Australian medical schools after 1975 is identified. A major finding of this exploration is the ready admission of the study cohort as to how their New Guinea experience changed most of their professional lives from one with an intended clinical focus to one in which the importance of public health and general practice became paramount.
Subject(s)
General Practice/history , Public Health/history , Schools, Medical/history , Australia , General Practice/education , History, 20th Century , New Zealand , Papua New Guinea , Public Health/education , Schools, Medical/organization & administrationABSTRACT
The recommended approach to the management of ulcerans disease lesions is a combined surgical/multidrug medical approach. Small lesions may resolve spontaneously, and for other early lesions cure may be effected either by medication or simple excision alone. A much simpler, less-aggressive surgical approach, combined with antibiotics to manage the larger lesions of ulcerans disease, is described. The method both reduces the extent of residual scarring and hastens healing. It is of particular value to doctors working in more isolated areas. This approach was recommended by several authors in the 1960s, but seems to have been forgotten.
Subject(s)
Buruli Ulcer/surgery , Mycobacterium ulcerans , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Buruli Ulcer/drug therapy , Combined Modality Therapy/methods , HumansABSTRACT
Lesions due to Mycobacterium ulcerans infection may have more synonyms and eponyms than any other disease. New diseases are named for the person who discovered them, from the place from which they were first described or some major clinical feature. 'Buruli ulcer', the name by which the disease is most frequently known, is none of these. Classically, the disease presents as extensive, undermined ulcers, first described by Searls from Bairnsdale in southeastern Australia, names that gave the disease its two eponyms. A case is made for the term 'Buruli ulcer' to be dropped from the medical literature and the disease to be known as 'ulcerans disease' or simply 'ulcerans'.
