Fiji has declared a national crisis amid an extraordinary rise in HIV cases, with health officials raising the alarm about an epidemic that has emerged alongside an increase in injectable drug use.
The country’s health and medical services minister, Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu, said in a statement on social media that an outbreak-level response was no longer sufficient to address what he described an “epidemic”.
“Today I am formally declaring a national health emergency in Fiji,” he said. “This decision recognises the seriousness of the epidemic and the urgent coordinated response our country now needs.”
The health minister said the government estimates that one in every 60 adults in Fiji is now living with HIV.
“Five years ago, the estimate was one in 167. In 2025, we recorded 2,060 new HIV diagnoses,” he said, adding that one in 50 pregnant women has HIV.
The emergency declaration followed on from a cabinet decision on 9 September and would require a coordinated response, he added.
Home to less than one million people, the Pacific nation is facing one of the sharpest increases in new HIV infections globally, according to UNAIDS, which said that new infections spiked 12-fold between 2010 and 2025.
The Fijian government will introduce a syringe and needle programme as part of its response to the national crisis.
The country already has sufficient supplies of syringes and needles, Lalabalavu says, with legislative amendments to be introduced in parliament so that the programme can be rolled out.
The minister also urged people to come forward and get tested.
“No one should be ashamed, threatened, or excluded because of their HIV status,” he said. “Stigma drives people away from the very services that can help them.”
Of the 9,100 Fijians living with HIV in 2025, only 39% knew their HIV status and just 22% were accessing antiretroviral treatment, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAIDS).
Jason Mitchell, who leads the national HIV response taskforce, believes it will take “upwards of five years for [Fiji] to get on top of the epidemic”.
“It’s a long-term programme, it’s not something like Covid that’s turned around in two years. HIV is very different,” he told ABC News is an interview.
