America Samoa consists of six islands deep in the heart of the South Pacific and has been a territory of the United States for the last 100 years. Geographically, it lies half way between the United States and Australia below Hawaii.
Samoans, who are of Polynesian extraction, and have lived in the South Pacific for more than 3,000 years, have a culture rich in tradition and place great emphasis on the extended family.
The health infrastructure in American Samoa consists of one hospital (LBJ Tropical Medical Center) and five primaryhealth centres. The LBJ Tropical Medical Center, a 128-bed general acute care hospital, is the only hospital in the territory. It provides a reasonable scope of general inpatient and outpatient services covering: medicine; surgery; obstetrics and gynaecology; ear, nose and throat (ENT); eye; paediatrics; mental health; and renal dialysis.
The most serious health issues Samoans face are related to the increase in chronic diseases associated with lifestyle, with their roots in improper nutrition, and physical inactivity. Significant increases in the prevalence of obesity, in both sexes and at increasingly younger ages, are associated with a number of these conditions. Hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, type II diabetes mellitus and its complications, arthritis, gout and some forms of cancer are among these important chronic diseases.
Chronic ear disease is prevalent in American Samoa as well. There is an abundance of chronic otitis media, perforations, and cholesteatomas among the population. Otosclerosis is rarely encountered as one of the causes of conductive hearing loss in American Samoa.
At the LBJ Tropical Medical Center, clinical services in ENT provide the islands 70,000 inhabitants basic ENT care under the direction of the local ENT and clinical audiologist. Global ENT Outreach provides continuous consulting services via telemedicine and surgical services every 6 months to the island. If there is interest in traveling to American Samoa and providing services please contact us at info@geoutreach.org