SUVA – As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defence against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics.
In the South Pacific nation, a popular tourist destination of just under a million people, there were over 2 000 new HIV cases recorded last year, a 26% increase from 2024.
The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis.
“It’s spreading like wildfire,” Siteri Dinawai (46), who came to be tested, told AFP.
The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is part of a push to bring testing into neighbourhoods.
Volunteers from the Survival Advocacy Network, a group supporting sex workers, and Rainbow Pride Fiji, which works with LGBTQ+ communities, are on hand to speak to those who may be reluctant.
Ana Fofole and her team at Medical Services Pacific, which runs the clinic, hand out condoms as part of their awareness drive and test for syphilis and hepatitis B.
“We don’t just turn up anywhere, we have to do it the right way,” says Fofole.
Irinieta Foi (45) hopes to access nearby Medical Services Pacific testing. She, who can get results in 15 minutes, said she found the clinic by chance.
Many stay away for fear of returning a positive result, said 28-year-old Ecelina Lalabaluva, who also got tested.
Transit hub for drugs
Clinics raise awareness of blood-borne disease, identify and refer HIV cases in Fiji. Known cases are about 5 000, up from 500 in 2014, with UNAIDS classifying Fiji as having one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemics. Renata Ram from UNAIDS highlights the crisis’s long-term buildup.
Transmission rates rose around 2019 with a surge of “very high-risk” injecting drug users, mainly among sex workers, Ram explained.
“Fiji, like other Pacific islands, for a long time have been a transit hub for drugs from Latin America and Asia destined for Australia and New Zealand,” said Virginia Comolli, Pacific programme head at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
The flow of highly addictive drugs like meth and cocaine to lucrative markets increased sharply after a Covid lull, she explained. These drugs are seeping into Pacific domestic markets partly because foreign syndicates pay local facilitators in kind. For those with the virus, social stigma is heavy in a country with conservative values.
‘Wait to die?’
One of the few public faces of the crisis is Mark Lal, who was diagnosed with HIV two years ago.
“In Fiji, whenever the topic of sex comes up, everyone just disperses,” said Lal (24), a gay man who said he is not a drug user.
He originally knew little about HIV and the available treatment.
“When I was diagnosed, the first thing I asked the doctors was: ‘What now? Do I just wait to die?”
On his “Living Positive Fiji” Facebook page, Lal has fielded questions from more than 100 people.
Most are aged 17 to 20 and are unsure whether to disclose their HIV status out of fear of discrimination.
“If you come out publicly as someone living with HIV, there’s a chance that you might actually not get a good reaction,” Lal said.
His own hospital visits for his initial diagnosis left its mark.
“I saw some walking out with fear in their eyes, and I was like: ‘I want to change this. I want to help people’.”
Fiji has a tough task to rein in case numbers, according to Ram of UNAIDS, who said the country is “15 to 20 years behind” in its HIV efforts.
“A needle-syringe programme is what is very much needed right now.”
-Nampa/AFP