LOW condom use is fueling the spread of HIV in Fiji, with health officials warning that undetected infections are worsening the crisis.
Chairman of the National HIV Outbreak and Cluster Response, Dr Jason Mitchell, said inconsistent condom use remained a major concern nationwide.
“The reality in this country, as it is in other Pacific Island countries, is we are poor at using condoms,” he said.
Dr Mitchell said this was contributing to ongoing transmission, especially when combined with other high risk practices.
“If we don’t have good effective condom program, we will continue to have HIV infections.”
Officials are also concerned that reported figures may understate the epidemic’s true scale. While 2016 cases were recorded in 2025, Dr Mitchell said the actual number could be far higher.
“The fact that we have diagnosed 2016 cases last year is not actually a very good sign because we should have diagnosed at least 3000 people with HIV last year.
“We know that for every case we have, there are multiple cases we don’t have.”
A new transmission pattern is also emerging through shared injecting practices, spreading infections within close social and family networks.
“Like we share food in groups, we share kava, one bowl, we share alcohol, one glass, we are sharing needling syringes in that way, so people are becoming infected in groups.”
He cautioned that the combination of low condom use, hidden infections, and unsafe injecting practices is accelerating HIV’s spread, calling for urgent intervention to control the situation.
