Why this island paradise has the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemic

Mark Shaheel Lal is the founder of Living Positive Fiji and a reconciliation officer for the Fiji Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He says: "The majority of my friends, they got HIV through crystal meth." He was photographed at the AIDS conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July. Best known as a tropical paradise and honeymoon destination, the island nation of Fiji now has the unfortunate distinction of facing two intertwined epidemics: HIV and addiction to crystal meth.

With HIV cases rising by 12-fold between 2010 and 2025, in mid-September, Fiji's government declared a national emergency. Estimates are that there are upward of 9,000 cases; the country's health minister has announced that 1 in 60 adults are now living with HIV.