Inaugural South Pacific Medical Student's Medical Camp

I recently returned from the inaugural South Pacific Medical Student's Medical Camp in Malolo Island, Fiji.

120 medical students from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Papua New Guinea as well as New Zealand and Australia spent a week on a tribal area in the school grounds courtesy of the local chief. The dais was a single structure decorated with palm leaves and the audience sat under a similar structure 25 metres away. There were some fascinating lectures from plant biologists, climatologists, epidemiologists and radiation oncologists. Fiji is soon to get its first radiation oncology centre. I spoke on maternal sepsis and gave tutorials on introductory O&G ultrasound using a portable Vinno ultrasound and a phantom female pelvis .The latter caused some raised eyebrows in Fijian Customs at Nadi Airport. The open boat trip to Malolo in rough seas was particularly interesting as I feared the ultrasound equipment might vanish over the side but that was not to be.

It was very apparent that these young medical students have grave concerns about global warming, rising sea levels and the spread of tropical disease.They may well be on the right track.