The PNG Health Department believes this latest outbreak has been sparked by unhygienic conditions in coastal villages and have appealed to affected communities to clean their homes, safely discard rubbish, boil drinking water and improve hand hygiene.

Restrictions are still in place for travel between PNG and Australia's Torres Strait Islands.

Enoch Posanai, from the PNG Health Department says while they can cofirm 300 deaths from Cholera.... that figure may be much higher.

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
KEVIN RUDD

The Australian Government is providing additional assistance to Papua New Guinea (PNG) to respond to the outbreak of cholera on Daru Island, in the Western Province.

Cholera is a bacterial infection typically spread through contaminated water and up to 70 patients per day are presenting at Daru Hospital, which serves a large and difficult-to-access region near the mouth of the Fly River.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said this

The Australian Government is providing comprehensive emergency support to the Government of Papua New Guinea, in response to a confirmed outbreak of cholera on Daru Island, in PNG's Western Province.

Further medical supplies and emergency experts will arrive in Papua New Guinea tomorrow from Australia to provide additional support.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd today said containing the outbreak was important.

'We are sending more supplies of intravenous fluids, oral salts and water purification tablets as well emergency experts.

On 11 November, the government confirmed a cholera outbreak in Daru; 300 people have been treated in hospital since the first case was reported there at end-October. The Health Department's acting secretary, Paul Dopsie, said treated cases were "under control" in Daru and surrounding villages. Additional medical supplies and staff

The Pacific region covers a vast geographical area comprising thousands of islands and atolls. The majority of Pacific island countries contend with the challenges of smallness and geographic isolation. The Pacific island countries are the most heavily aid-assisted part of the world on a per capita basis. The high rates of migration in the region are primarily a response to real and perceived inequalities in socio-economic opportunities.

A variety of hazards including cyclones, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides - constitute