sharing ‘bluetooth’ trend is driving epidemic

Testing for HIV has ramped up in Fiji, as the island nation deals with an HIV national emergency. Photo / 123RF

A dangerous drug-sharing trend is driving Fiji’s HIV epidemic, a top Pacific health expert says.

Fiji’s Government this week declared an HIV national emergency after figures showed that one in 60 people now have the virus. Among pregnant women, the figure is one in 50.

It is one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics.

Pasifika doctor, Sir Collin Tukuitonga, said he had never heard of the drug-sharing trend - known as bluetoothing - until a doctor from Fiji explained it at a medical conference where the surge in HIV cases in Fiji was being discussed.

“They were talking about this thing called bluetoothing, where someone will take whatever - a drug - and then they take the blood from themselves and inject it into their friend.