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A Tongan health physician who characterized the significant rise in cancer rates within the Pacific region as a “hidden epidemic” has been promoted to professor.
Professor Sunia Foliaki was promoted from the rank of associate to full professor by Auckland’s Massey University, effective January 1, 2025.
The promotion underscored the significance of his contributions to the health field and the urgent need for greater awareness and action regarding cancer prevention and treatment in the Pacific.
Dr Foliaki reportedly said cancer is one of the region’s biggest killers, but little is known about it and efforts to understand it are under-resourced.
“Cancer is the probably second-leading cause of death, and what’s concerning to me is I’d probably say that at least just over a third of these cancers are very, very much preventable, affordable, but people are dying from these,” he told a previous interview with RNZ Pacific.
His doctoral dissertation addressed the significant gap in global research regarding asthma’s prevalence and time trends in the Pacific region.
The study aimed to explore the underlying causes of asthma and evaluate the effectiveness of various control measures employed over time.
Dr Foliaki was awarded $300,000 from the Health Research Council in 2015 to look into the palliative health care of Pacific people in New Zealand.
“Sunia is a very talented Pacific health researcher and a highly deserving recipient. His work will contribute to improved health in Pacific people in New Zealand. It is urgently needed given the significant health inequalities Pacific people face”, said Professor Jeroen Douwes, the director of the Centre for Public Health Research, after the fellowship award.
