Despite having a smaller population compared with other regions of Fiji, the Northern Division has the highest burden of typhoid.

This was confirmed by microbiology scientist Orisi Cabenatabua.

Mr Cabenatabua presented current trends in typhoid and vaccination efforts at the Fiji Institute of Medical Laboratory Services (FIMLS) Annual Convention.

He explained that the endemicity rate for typhoid in the Northern Division was higher than the national average.

“So Fiji is endemic to typhoid in the sense that we record a lot of cases each year,” Mr Cabenatabua said.

“Although the number of cases in the North is lower than in the Central and Western divisions, this is largely due to its smaller population of approximately 100,000 people.”

He said in contrast, the Central Division had around 600,000 residents, which skewed the endemicity rate.

“It’s common across all subdivisions as well as all age groups.

“So, why are a lot of people in the North particularly affected by typhoid? It could be due to a lot of factors such as access to sanitation or hygiene and also due to climate change.”

He highlighted that many typhoid cases tend to rise following cyclones, attributing this to a lack of access to sanitation during such events.

“I think there needs to also be a deeper dive into this issue.”

To combat the disease, Mr Cabenatabua said the Ty-Five project aimed to strengthen the existing surveillance system.

This includes both clinical surveillance — tracking patients who visit hospitals — and environmental sampling to identify potential contamination sources.

“We try to sample the environment and see if there’s environmental contamination of salmonella.”

He said that such contamination could be a significant factor in typhoid transmission.

“We did a 10-week vaccination campaign, and now we’re trying to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“If we compare the number of cases that we have at this point in October with October last year, it’s less than half.”