\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>he night her baby\u2019s heart stopped, Clare* blamed herself. Had she taken her out in the cold too much? Had she damaged her lungs by drinking iced water when she was pregnant? She fixated on Andi\u2019s tiny chest, willing it to suck in air, rushing her to hospital in Fiji for the second time in as many days.<\/p>\n All through the early hours Andi* clung to life. Doctors performed CPR several times, puncturing the month-old baby\u2019s chest to insert a drain, removing fluid from around her lungs. \u201cShe was really, really sick and they didn\u2019t know what was going on \u2026 she was getting weaker and weaker,\u201d Clare says. She sat by her daughter\u2019s bedside. She prayed.<\/p>\n Then, doctors asked to do an HIV test. Clare was confused, telling doctors she didn\u2019t have it. She\u2019d already taken a test.<\/p>\n <\/span>Clare found out her daughter, Andi, had HIV after a visit to the hospital for an unexplained illness.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n No, we mean for the baby, doctors told her.<\/p>\n Andi was HIV positive. So were Clare and her husband. During late pregnancy or while breastfeeding, Clare had contracted the virus and passed it to her daughter, who will now live the rest of her life with a chronic disease. \u201cI thought it was the end of the world,\u201d Clare, who is in her early twenties, says. She turned to her husband, an injecting drug user. \u201cHe said, \u2018No, I\u2019ve been cautious with this.\u2019 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t know. We don\u2019t know. So we\u2019ll just have to figure this out, for the betterment of her\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Clare\u2019s young family is one of thousands caught up in Fiji\u2019s HIV crisis, with new cases more than tripling between 2023 and 2024. More than 1,200 people were diagnosed in the first six months of 2025 alone, the world\u2019s fastest-growing HIV epidemic amid a decline in global aid. The UN says Fiji\u2019s location as a drug-running hub and escalating local methamphetamine use has fuelled the rapid spread, coupled with unsafe injecting practices and lack of access to clean needles. Low health awareness, cultural stigma and inadequate testing and treatment have exacerbated the crisis.<\/p>\n Graph showing the number of people living with HIV by year<\/p>\n It has become a disease of the young and addicted, with half of those who contract HIV thought to have done so through contaminated needle sharing or drug preparation. Now, infections are growing among the most vulnerable: the wave of babies who are being born with \u2013 and dying from \u2013 complications due to HIV or Aids.<\/p>\n The health authorities told the Guardian that one baby a week is being diagnosed with HIV from mother-to-child transmission, with intensive care units seeing an influx of babies needing life support. One child under the age of five is dying every month, says Dr Jason Mitchell, the head of Fiji\u2019s HIV epidemic response, as doctors frantically try to figure out what is wrong with them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the figure that I feel most pained by, because it is preventable,\u201d he says. \u201cIt is inexcusable to have any more children born with HIV.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Dr Jason Mitchell, the head of Fiji\u2019s HIV epidemic response, says one child under the age of five is dying every month. <\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n At the edges of this crisis, however, there is some hope. Doctors are among those teaching others that with treatment, comes life; that it is better to seek help than die of Aids, despite the enduring stigma.<\/p>\n Fiji, an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean known for its tropical reefs and beaches, has a population of about 930,000. It is a deeply Christian country made up of more than 300 islands, where religion coexists with traditional beliefs. Customary healing and a distrust of western medicine is still commonplace among the iTaukei, or Indigenous Fijians, who make up roughly half of the population. iTaukei are more likely to live in poverty, and make up about 90% of those diagnosed with HIV.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re living with HIV you\u2019re sinful, you\u2019re going to hell, period. Because we\u2019ve been grounded in religious values, that whatever the preacher says about \u2018HIV is a sin\u2019 it is seeded in our heart,\u201d says Christopher Lutukivuya, 38, an HIV activist who has been living with the condition since 2013.<\/p>\n <\/span>In Suva, Fiji\u2019s capital, the nights are fraught, and some children get caught up in drug-taking.<\/span> Photograph: Cooper Williams\/The Guardian<\/p>\n He has seen friends turfed out of family homes or made to live in basements, and those who prefer to deny they are sick or take their own lives <\/strong>rather <\/strong>than admit they have HIV. He picks up medication for those who do not want to be seen in clinics, and drives people to get tested.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the problems we have right now is acceptance. It\u2019s a major issue. I\u2019ve seen walking skeletons, of not wanting to go to the hospital, which has broken my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Those in Fiji working for the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAids, the UN agency that fights HIV and Aids globally, say the most basic knowledge around HIV is severely lacking.<\/p>\n <\/span>Christopher Lutukivuya, 38, a HIV activist who has been living with the condition since 2013, drives people to medical appointments.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cThe sorts of things that were issues in Australia in the 1980s, we\u2019re now seeing in the Pacific,\u201d says Dr Mark Jacobs, the WHO representative for the South Pacific. This includes not knowing about the dangers of sharing needles, the lack of a safe needle programme \u2013 which is now being set up by Fiji\u2019s Ministry of Health \u2013 knowledge of treatment, and acceptance of condom use.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a degree of naivety, but also because the way the infection is spread can be quite uncomfortable for many people to even think about.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Doctors are among those teaching others that it is better to seek help than die of Aids, despite the enduring stigma.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In villages, some leaders spoken to by the Guardian did not know that HIV could be passed from mothers to babies, or said this was the mother\u2019s fault. Many did not know that HIV was treatable \u2013 a misconception in cities, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a death sentence,\u201d says Francine*, an Indo-Fijian woman in her mid-30s who found out she had contracted HIV from an IV-drug-using partner when she was breastfeeding. She would have liked to have used a condom, but says she couldn\u2019t ask.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m educated, I know about it, but I can\u2019t negotiate condom use with my partners,\u201d she says. \u201cThe power dynamics in Fiji, you cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n On the streets of Fiji\u2019s capital Suva, the air is warm, but the nights are fraught. Kids survive here by mugging or being used as drug pushers. Many of them inject the first time they encounter meth; it\u2019s quicker and cheaper, and more of them can get high at once.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the children that we speak with prefer staying on the streets because this is where they get the drugs,\u201d Dr Dashika Balak says. \u201cThey are among their friends, and this is where they find what they call love.\u201d<\/p>\n Children become addicted to meth as it flows through Fiji on the way to New Zealand and Australia, with transnational criminal syndicates now also targeting Fiji as a market.<\/p>\n At the Kauwai Youth Restoration Home, social workers led by the pastor Amani Waqetia work to rehabilitate young people, showing them what life without drugs and fear looks like. Among the young people living here are Isac*, 17, who ran away from an abusive uncle, and Nemaia*, 15, who fell in with the wrong crowd. They both became addicted to meth and contracted HIV through needle sharing.<\/p>\n Isac, moving draughts around on a board game at the boys\u2019 home in Suva, says: \u201cI was fit. And after that, I became slim. I lost all my weight. I got it in my body \u2026 when we share needles, the bacteria for that person will come to me.\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>Children living in the streets of Suva survive here by mugging or being used as drug pushers. <\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that the drugs are bad for my health. I just keep on doing.\u201d He beat the habit, with social workers \u2013 many of whom used to live on the streets themselves \u2013 focusing on his diet, structured routine, talk therapy, and reintroducing him to society and faith. Now, he is back at school, enjoys playing guitar, and wants to be an accountant. He\u2019s a good sprinter and trains now for athletics. \u201cI just want to change my life, become a better person. Achieve my goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Nemaia, who spent two years stealing and scavenging on the street, was brought to the hostel by social welfare after a video in which he shot up another boy using a needle went viral on social media. Sitting beside him now, the pride in social worker Maika Barinisavu\u2019s voice is evident when he says how much Nemaia, once wide-eyed and aggressive, has improved; he\u2019s healthy, at peace, and considered one of the leaders. Finding out he had HIV was scary, Nemaia says, but his daily medication means he can live a normal life,and that\u2019s what he tells the new boys who come in here. \u201cI thought I was going to heaven. I was walking up there. Now I\u2019m feeling fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Maika Barinisavu, who lived on the streets as a child, is now an advocate at Kauwai Youth Restoration Home in Suva.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Telling a child they have HIV is a learned skill. Most of them don\u2019t understand, even as their parents cry beside them.<\/p>\n \u201cDevelopmentally, they still don\u2019t really get it,\u201d says Dr Kesaia Tuidraki, the chief medical officer at the sexual and reproductive health clinic Medical Services Pacific.<\/p>\n On average, one person with HIV will spread it to ten others, she says \u2013 mostly through shared needles. Transmission also occurs through unsafe sex, and rape. Dr Tuidraki routinely gives HIV prophylaxis to rape and sexual assault victims, effective within 72 hours of the assault. Most cases are girls under the age of 18 and can include several members of the same family. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to stomach when the people who are impacted by this are completely innocent,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n But through Tuidraki\u2019s work, and the work of others, some small shifts are happening. Her organisation has ramped up testing, taking mobile clinics to the streets of Suva and into remote villages.<\/p>\n If HIV is detected in early pregnancy, antiretroviral medications can be started so that the disease can become virally suppressed, lowering or completely preventing the risk of transmission from mother to child.<\/p>\n Renata Ram, an adviser on the Pacific to UNAids, says along with introducing more antenatal testing and earlier maternity care, it was working with the Fiji government on making Prep \u2013 pre-exposure prophylaxis \u2013 available in the next six months through tablets, injectables, and a vaginal ring that women can wear in secret.<\/p>\n \u201cMost women that are being picked up right now are not injecting drug users, not sex workers. The majority of them are married women who get HIV within their marriage and who do not have much say in terms of their protection,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Ram says the aim of the HIV program is to \u201creduce harm while we are still working on the human rights aspect of things. These cultural changes take generations, so we are giving women a choice to protect themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Renata Ram, an adviser on the Pacific region to UNAids, says she wants women to be able to protect themselves.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n After seven months on life support, Andi is a happy two-year-old, a scar on her left ribcage the only clue to the night Clare almost lost her. She takes her lifelong anti-retroviral meds crushed up in juice. But Clare watches her closely; despite being careful, Andi has been in and out of hospital, the last time two weeks ago. \u201cIf you want your child to be alive, you just have to follow what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n The authorities are expected to upgrade the pandemic threat level to that of a generalised epidemic in the coming months \u2013 and while the Fijian government pumped $10m last year into the response, an amount matched by millions in support from Australia and New Zealand, more pressure is needed, Mitchell says. \u201cIt cannot just be business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n Up to 8,900 people are living with HIV in Fiji, according to data from UNAids, a number authorities admit may not reflect the full picture. The 126 official deaths recorded in 2024 are also not considered a representative figure as Mitchell and others tell the Guardian that often in Fiji even when a death is thought to be linked to HIV or Aids, that will not be recorded to avoid bringing shame on patients or their family.<\/p>\n <\/span>The nightlife in Suva.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In Fiji\u2019s villages, leaders are in no doubt as to what is in store for them all if HIV continues to spread. As the sun sets on a kava ceremony in Nataleira, a village south of Suva, elders talk about the threat; they want to be prepared, to get tested. \u201cI don\u2019t want one of my family members to be affected because that [virus] kills a generation,\u201d says Rusiate Togotogorua, the headteacher of 170 kids at Navunisaa district school. \u201cNot just one, but a generation. It will come.\u201d<\/p>\n Not all those in villages like to talk. Some expel those with HIV, but places where those people can be cared for are springing up, too.<\/p>\n On the outskirts of Nadi, down the end of a long, rutted driveway in the countryside, a group of women laugh, ribbing each other. They are on their way to a safe house which caters mainly for women, trans women and children who are survivors of drugs, HIV, sexual and domestic violence. On a Monday night in February, there are 68 people there, including 13 kids, and hundreds have been through since it opened in 2019.<\/p>\n <\/span>Edwina Biyau, the founder of Daulomani Safe House, says many people are in denial about the extent of HIV transmission.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cThis issue is related to everybody,\u201d says Edwina Biyau, a trans woman and former sex worker who founded <\/strong>the <\/strong>Daulomani Safe House after seeing the need for more prevention and support for those living with HIV.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can say that you\u2019re innocent. You\u2019re not going out. You\u2019re just going to church. But how about your husband? How about your uncle? How about your brother? How about your children? We get frustrated because everyone doesn\u2019t want to be part of it, you know. \u2018Oh, that\u2019s for sex workers. That\u2019s for drug addicts.\u2019 But that\u2019s why so many people are dying. Because it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n When people Biyau suspects have HIV come in, she presents them with Josy Ralulu. A giggly, glowing picture of health, Ralulu is a sex worker who found out she had HIV in 2022 after Biyau urged her to get tested when she had symptoms of what she thought was syphilis.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first, I was shocked,\u201d Ralulu says. \u201cI thought I was dead. And then the doctor told me, calm down. There\u2019s medication for it that\u2019s gonna make you live.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Josy Ralulu now receives treatment for HIV after testing positive in 2022.<\/span> Photograph: Viniana Bau\/The Guardian<\/p>\n For Biyau, who the girls here call mother, the only way forward is with love, and with hope. In a culture that\u2019s so close-knit, it\u2019s the only thing she sees working.<\/p>\n \u201cYou got infected with HIV. But that\u2019s not the end of the world. You know, you can write a new chapter. You can have a new story to tell. This is what happened, and this is hope. You still can live.\u201d<\/p>\n *Names have been changed<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The night her baby\u2019s heart stopped, Clare* blamed herself. Had she taken her out in the cold too much? Had she damaged her lungs by drinking iced water when she was pregnant? She fixated on Andi\u2019s tiny chest, willing it to suck in air, rushing her to hospital in Fiji for the second time in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[733,166,10915,542,12688,23317,7140,6400,15672,23316],"class_list":{"0":"post-45169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-babies","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-denial","11":"tag-drugs","12":"tag-fiji","13":"tag-fijis","14":"tag-hiv","15":"tag-nightmare","16":"tag-stigma","17":"tag-swept"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018I\u2019ve seen walking skeletons\u2019<\/h2>\n
Young and addicted<\/h2>\n
\u2018People affected are completely innocent\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018You can write a new chapter\u2019<\/h2>\n