After quite some planning and with the support of WHO and Burnet Institute,  last week saw the convening of a Guideline Writing Committee in Port Moresby. The committee membership includes many senior PNG clinicians, co-chaired by Dr Goa Tau (NDOH) and Professor Robert Moulds (Therapeutic Guidelines, Australia.  It was a great 2 day meeting with fantastic engagement. The various topic subgroups have now been set their homework and we meet again in November.  The PRIDA representative is Dr Ferguson.

The guidelines will have primacy over antibiotic regimens in existing standard treatment guidelines that are pending updates. Alignment with the recently updated Paediatric Guidelines will be sought before their release. The current work is based on two recent Pacific Nations antibiotic guidelines – Fiji (2019) and Timor-Leste (2022).