Fiji's HIV cases surge due to bluetoothing, chemsex and needle-sharing

The small South Pacific nation is facing one of the world's fastest growing HIV epidemics.

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When she first started Fiji's Survivor Advocacy Network in 2013, that young boy was yet to be born. Now he is one of thousands of Fijians to have contracted the bloodborne virus in recent years – many of them aged 19 or younger, and many of them through intravenous drug use.

"More young people are using drugs," Ms Naitala, whose organisation provides support to sex workers and drug users in the Fijian capital Suva, tells the BBC. "He (the boy) was one of those young people that were sharing needles on the street during Covid."

Over the past five years, Fiji – a tiny South Pacific nation with a population of less than a million – has become the locus of one of the world's fastest growing HIV epidemics.

In 2014, the country had fewer than 500 people living with HIV. By 2024 that number had soared to approximately 5,900 – an elevenfold leap.