Introduction
Republic of Indonesia was badly affected by the economic crisis that began in Thailand in mid 1997. The crisis increased the incidence of poverty in Indonesia, and now it is time to grapple with this chronic poverty from various angles. The objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of the Social Safety Net (SSN) program on the health sector, which aimed to mitigate the effects of economic crisis. We focused on one of the SSN's health sector programs, the health card program, which provided free medical service for poor families.
We examined the usefulness and limitations of this program from an administration perspective.
Methods
Based on the ‘wealth ranking’ which is used in the field of development assistance, we chose 26 and 34 households that were classed as ‘relatively poor families’ from two villages in a rural area of Central Java, and interviewed households to understand how the health card program was delivered to them.
Results
The results indicated that 30 % (8/26) and 56 % (19/34) of the ‘relatively poor families’ have a health card, although half of these households had never used their cards, and half of them couldn't find their cards. Lack of awareness and indifference of medical staffs to the health card are considered to be possible reasons hindering people from using the card. Another reason was that some households felt ashamed to use the health card.
Conclusions
We suggest two methods to promote the increased usage of the SSN's health card as follows; first, choose the target household objectively, and secondly, enhance the management of the health sector program by taking advantage of midwives and teachers, as they have experience and can view the situation from a broader perspective. In addition, like any kind of public service, accessibility is an important factor to promote the usage of this health card.

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Objective
The purpose of this study was to assess the psychological impact and associated factors in adolescents 5 years after the ethnic tension in the Solomon Islands.
Methods
In total, 199 high school students and villagers from Guadalcanal province and Malaita province participated in this study. To examine the psychological impact of the ethnic tension, a semi-structured interview was performed using a questionnaire and the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R) for posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) symptoms. The participants were divided into three groups according to the places (A, B, C) where the participants lived at the beginning of the ethnic tension.
Results
Recalled emotions of traumatic experiences were significantly more severe in the most affected areas (group A, B). Although previous studies showed females are more emotionally impacted than males in disaster, the emotional impact was significantly more frequent in males than females in this study. Especially, the IES-R score was significantly higher in males of group A. No differences were found in the IES-R scores among the three groups; A: 33.4, B: 30.0, C: 34.5. The adolescents in this study had higher IES-R scores.
Conclusions
This study indicates that the PTSD symptoms of the adolescents have persisted for 5 years after the ethnic tension in the Solomon Islands.

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Malaria is a parasitic disease of major global health significance that causes an estimated 1.5-2.7 million deaths each year. Though immunochromatographic test (ICT) have been used for the convenient method of diagnosis of malaria, microscopy of Giemsa-stained thick and thin films by a skilled microscopist has still remaind the standard laboratory method for the diagnosis of malaria in the endemic area of developing countries. In the present study, we innovated a small light box equipped with light emitting diode (LED) for the source of light of microscopy to improve the blood check in the field of malaria endemic area. We performed field trials for the check of the utility of the light box in Malaita Province, Solomon Islands. All the microscopists of some clinics answered that the LED light box is a promising tool for improvement of diagnosis of malaria with microscopy.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness and needs of older Korean residents in Japan for long-term care insurance services by analyzing the factors associated with their interest in using the services.
All participants were Koreans aged 65 years or older living in Tokyo's Ward A, and all were interviewed in their homes. The investigation items were the presence or absence of intention of using long-term care insurance services as well as the following: 1. predisposing factors (basic attributes, communication abilities in Japanese, inclination toward family care); 2. Enabling factors (degree of familiarity with the services, economic situation, receipt or non-receipt of public pensions, record on use of the services); and 3. Need factors (subjective sense of well-being, ADL, IADL). The χ² test was used to examine the correlations between the presence or absence of intention of using the services.
Seventy-eight Koreans were studied. Among those, 35.9% were second-generation Koreans living in Japan. Those with strong inclination toward family care and without pensions accounted for 26.3%. The percentage that intended to use long-term care insurance services was 69.2%, which showed significant correlations with inclination toward family care and economic situation. Many of the Koreans had a positive view of the socialization of care and wanted family-centered home care with outside services. The study found significant correlations between the receipt or non-receipt of pensions, economic situation and age, suggesting that care premiums and fees are a greater financial burden for older Koreans without pensions when compared with the burden for older Japanese. For Koreans, the financial burden may possibly prevent obtaining services. The study showed that developing a support system to allow easy access to long-term care insurance services and providing help compatible with individual care needs are necessities.

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