Fiji urges Pacific neighbours to learn from its costly HIV crisis

Fiji’s HIV outbreak has become a warning for its Pacific neighbours, Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica said, as he urged governments to share information before they face similar costs.

Speaking at the opening of the 2026 Pacific Islands Health Research Symposium at Fiji National University, Kamikamica said Fiji’s experience had consumed lives and resources. He called for joint research, disease surveillance, and information-sharing so emerging health threats can be detected and addressed earlier.

Fiji declared an HIV outbreak in January 2025. Government figures recorded 2,016 new diagnoses that year, compared with 1,583 in 2024. An estimated 9,100 people are now living with HIV in the country, while adult prevalence stands at about 1.6 percent. Around 70 percent of cases involve people under 39.

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What Fiji is learning about this outbreak, it is learning at a real cost in lives and resources. There is value in sharing that experience so that others are not required to learn the same harsh lesson independently.

Kamikamica also pointed to a changing pattern of transmission. Injecting drug use and needle sharing associated with methamphetamine use are contributing substantially, he said. Movement between Pacific countries for work, study, and medical referrals means health trends can quickly affect neighbouring populations.

“What Fiji is learning about this outbreak, it is learning at a real cost in lives and resources,” Kamikamica said. “There is value in sharing that experience so that others are not required to learn the same harsh lesson independently.” He said Fiji was ready to share its experience, arguing that no Pacific country has enough scale to answer the region’s health questions alone.

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No single Pacific country has the scale to answer these questions in isolation. And there is little to be gained by any of us relearning at a cost a lesson a neighbour has already learned.