Medical Services Pacific and the Fiji Police Force uncovered 17 new HIV cases after testing 91 street dwellers in Suva over two nights.
The “Moonlight Program” was conducted about three weeks ago in the Suva City area as part of a harm reduction approach to reach high-risk and hard-to-reach populations.
MSP country director Dr Kesaia Tuidraki said the outreach was only possible through collaboration.
“We were only able to successfully implement this through the collaboration that we have with Fiji Police Force, with our CSO partners and that included the Rainbow Pride Foundation, peer outreach workers, the San Fiji and not forgetting our Fiji Network of People Living with HIV,” she said.
Prior to the intervention, police officers in community policing in Totogo underwent sensitisation.
Peer outreach workers were then paired with police officers for a “dry run” to inform street dwellers of the upcoming testing dates.
“For those two nights we had a total number of 91 street dwellers who had come in to get tested, 17 of whom had a positive result meaning these were newly diagnosed cases.
“If you look at it that’s equivalent to about 18 per cent positivity rate which meant that one out of every six-person individual that was tested that night came back with a positive test.”
Dr Tuidraki said the results highlight why Fiji can no longer afford to work in silos in its HIV response.
“We need to work in a coordinated fashion with our partners because at the end of the day it’s really about reducing the number of HIV that we have in our country.”
