Within the Pacific, Tonga is recognised to have some of the highest overall health standards, implementing a combination of preventative and immediate strategies to curb rates of communicable disease, child mortality and overall life expectancy.[1] The Tongan government aims to continue such levels of health through achieving their Millennium Development Goals (MDG) detailing their focus on improving their healthcare system within the areas of maternal and infant health as well as improve access to immunisation, safe water and sanitation.[1]
Through data formulated by the World Health Organization and Tonga's Ministry of Health, its population of over 105,000, 75% of the country's mortalities are attributed to non-communicable diseases (NCD) such as strains of cardiovascular and ischemic heart diseases and diabetes.[2] Additionally, 99.9% of the adult population is vulnerable to developing NCDs and despite the launch of Tonga's National Strategy to Prevent and Control NCDs the prevalence of such conditions has continued to rise.[1] Such increases are attributed to the processes of urbanisation and modernisation which popularised a more sedentary lifestyle amongst Tongans and introduced processed and saturated fats into their everyday diets.[3]
Through modernising and nationalising their healthcare system, as well as initiatives headlined by WHO, the overall life expectancy has been on the slow incline being rated at 77 in 2020.[4] Tonga has also had an increased prevalence of infectious diseases such as hepatitis A due to contamination of food and water in more remote areas as well as in 2019 an outbreak of measles which was declared an epidemic across the pacific due to a decrease in measles vaccinations across the islands.[5]
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative[6] finds that Tonga is fulfilling 74.4% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income.[7] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Tonga achieves 98.3% of what is expected based on its current income.[7] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 86.9% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.[8] Tonga falls into the "very bad" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 38.1% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.[7]
- ^ a b c The Kingdom of Tonga Health System Review. Who Regional Office for the Western Pacific. World Health Organization. 2015. ISBN 978-92-9061-719-8. OCLC 932169830.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Government of Tonga & United Nations Development Program (2013). Millennium Development Goals [MDG] Acceleration Framework: Reducing the Incidence of Non-Communicable Diseases in Tonga (PDF). p. 27.
- ^ Lin, Sophia; Hufanga, Sione; Linhart, Christine; Morrell, Stephen; Taylor, Richard; Magliano, Dianna J.; Zimmet, Paul (2016-07-10). "Diabetes and Obesity Trends in Tonga Over 40 Years". Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health. 28 (6): 475–485. doi:10.1177/1010539516645156. ISSN 1010-5395. PMID 27122623. S2CID 8109721.
- ^ "World Population Prospects". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Population Dynamics. 2019.
- ^ Ministry of Health Government of Tonga (2019). Situation Report: Tonga Measles Outbreak 2019 (PDF). Government of Tonga. pp. 1–4.
- ^ "Human Rights Measurement Initiative – The first global initiative to track the human rights performance of countries". humanrightsmeasurement.org. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
- ^ a b c "Tonga - HRMI Rights Tracker". rightstracker.org. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
- ^ "Tonga- HRMI Rights Tracker". rightstracker.org. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
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