Results of a community-based screening programme for chronic kidney disease and associated risk factors, (obesity, diabetes and hypertension) in a Samoan cohort.

Objectives: In 2019, under the World Kidney Day theme of 'Kidney health for everyone everywhere', the National Kidney Foundation of Samoa undertook an extensive community screening campaign to detect the estimated prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated risk factors in the community.

Setting: Fifteen screening sites, with 11 urban and rural sites on the main island of Upolu, and 4 in different rural areas on the island of Savaii.

Participants: All participants were self-referrals to the various screening sites.

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease in Samoans living in Auckland, New Zealand.

Aims: Pacific peoples have higher rates of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and are five times more likely to commence kidney replacement therapy compared with New Zealand (NZ) Europeans. As the majority live Auckland, this study looked at the prevalence of CKD in two Auckland Pacific Island health providers caring for a large proportion of Pacific peoples, of which almost 50% are Samoan, as well as NZ Europeans.

Methods: De-identified information was requested on individuals who had two or more CKD tests (serum creatinine and urinary albumin creatinine ratios) more than 3 months apart.

Global health classroom: mixed methods evaluation of an interinstitutional model for reciprocal global health learning among Samoan and New Zealand medical students.

Background: Global health education partnerships should be collaborative and reciprocal to ensure mutual benefit. Utilisation of digital technologies can overcome geographic boundaries and facilitate collaborative global health learning. Global Health Classroom (GHCR) is a collaborative global health learning model involving medical students from different countries learning about each other's health systems, cultures, and determinants of health via videoconference.

Scabies and impetigo in Samoa: A school-based clinical and molecular epidemiological study.

Background: Common infections of the skin such as impetigo and scabies represent a large burden of disease globally, being particularly prevalent in tropical and resource-limited settings. Efforts to address these infections through mass drug administrations have recently been shown as efficacious and safe. In Samoa, a Pacific Island nation, there is a marked lack of epidemiological data for these neglected tropical diseases, or appreciation of their drivers in this setting.

Kidney failure in Samoa.

Background: There is limited literature on kidney disease in the Pacific Region, despite it being recognised as a leading cause of death in some Pacific Island nations. Kidney replacement therapy is only available in a handful of Pacific Islands. This paper reports the epidemiology of haemodialysis patients in Samoa.

Cancer control in the Pacific: big challenges facing small island states.

This Series paper describes the current state of cancer control in Pacific island countries and territories (PICTs). PICTs are diverse but face common challenges of having small, geographically dispersed, isolated populations, with restricted resources, fragile ecological and economic systems, and overburdened health services. PICTs face a triple burden of infection-related cancers, rapid transition to lifestyle-related diseases, and ageing populations; additionally, PICTs are increasingly having to respond to natural disasters associated with climate change.

Chronic Kidney Disease in New Zealand Māori and Pacific People.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) disproportionately affects Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand [NZ]) as well as Pacific people, particularly from Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. As New Zealand is home to the largest population of Pacific people, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands fulfil the definition of a CKD 'hotspot'. Although diabetic nephropathy is the major cause of CKD, with disproportionately higher rates in NZ Māori and Pacific people, there is increasing evidence that there is a familial predisposition to CKD that is not due to diabetes.