DECLARING HIV a national health crisis should not prevent the Government from addressing Fiji’s wider health challenges, says physician Jone Hawea.
In a social media post yesterday, Dr Hawea said scarce health resources should be allocated according to the country’s overall burden of disease and supported greater scrutiny of the evidence behind health priorities.
He questioned the Government’s use of an estimated HIV prevalence of about one in every 60 adults, stressing this was an estimated prevalence and not the proportion of people who had tested positive.
“Ministry of Health data for 2025 recorded 5676 cumulative HIV diagnoses since 1989 and 3535 people in the treatment database at the end of last year,” Dr Hawea said.
He said ministry data showed 57.9 per cent of new HIV cases recorded in 2025 had an unknown mode of transmission.
“Of cases with a recorded transmission mode, the ministry data showed 18 per cent were linked to injecting drug use, 14.2 per cent to heterosexual transmission, 7.1 per cent to men who have sex with men, and 2.8 per cent to mother-to-child transmission.”
Dr Hawea questioned whether the data established what was driving most new infections and cautioned against describing heterosexual transmission as “sexual promiscuity”.
He also pointed to the ministry’s 2025 STEPS report, which identifies NCDs as responsible for about 80 per cent of deaths in Fiji.
Dr Hawea said diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer continued to cause premature deaths and disability.
He called for evidence on the roles of new infections, increased testing and improved detection in rising HIV diagnoses.
“Claims about possible causes, including COVID-19 vaccination, should be investigated epidemiologically rather than assumed. With an election approaching, the public has every right to ask for the evidence behind the priorities being set.”
