Taboo factor has a role in Fiji HIV crisis - lecturer
Fiji is facing a national HIV emergency, with health experts citing underfunding, natural disasters, and cultural taboos as primary drivers. The government has expanded testing and needle exchange programs to combat the crisis.
Why it matters
The situation in Fiji underscores the vulnerability of small island nations to public health crises when infrastructure is underfunded and social stigma prevents education.
A health lecturer says gaps in sexual health knowledge have contributed to Fiji's HIV crisis.
Fiji's government has declared a national HIV emergency , expanding free rapid testing and giving clean needles to drug users.
Dr Jalal Mohommed from the University of Canterbury said Fiji was facing a once-in-a-generation health crisis.
He told Morning Report there were a number of factors contributing to it, including underfunding in the health sector and Fiji's position on the "drug highway".
"There's been multiple natural disasters, health worker migration, Covid-19 and its impacts. But there's also been, importantly, gaps in sexual health knowledge," he said.
"It is quite a taboo subject in Fiji, so not enough has been done. So if you've taken those public health workers out of the public health system and put them into the curative health system, there isn't that public health education going on."
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