Where is Fiji going to get $150 million to put everyone living with HIV on treatment?
This is the stark question posed by Dr Jason Mitchell as he warns that Fiji’s escalating HIV crisis could overwhelm the national health budget and place unsustainable pressure on the healthcare system.
Speaking during the National Talanoa Session on Responding to Illicit Drugs in Fiji: Renewing Commitment Through Action in Lami, the Chairman of the Fiji National HIV Outbreak Cluster Response Taskforce says it would cost an estimated $150 million annually to provide treatment for all 7,000 people living with HIV in Fiji, including managing opportunistic infections.
Dr Mitchell contrasted this with the Ministry of Health’s current annual drugs budget, which is less than $40 million.
He says that while antiretroviral treatment is freely available across Fiji’s health facilities, many of those being admitted to hospital are not on treatment or have not remained consistent with it, leading to severe illness.
Insert: Dr Mitchell - TB & HIV
Dr Mitchell says that about 80 percent of patients admitted to Twomey Hospital are co-infected with TB and HIV.
Unlike HIV, TB can spread through the air, increasing risks within communities.
He says intensive care units, already limited in number, are frequently occupied for months by patients suffering advanced HIV-related complications, including children in paediatric ICU wards.
He emphasised that prevention remains the most cost-effective solution for a resource-limited country like Fiji.
He says once people start treatment, they are on treatment for life, and it costs far less to prevent HIV than to treat it.
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