HIV cases high in iTaukei during community tests

More iTaukei are testing positive for HIV during the tests done in the wider community.

Chairman of the the Fiji National HIV Outbreak Cluster Response Taskforce, Doctor Jason Mitchell highlighted this during fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan, where he also stated that in the last three years there has been a 45-fold increase in adolescents, aged 10 to 19 years becoming infected with HIV mainly due to injectable drug use.

Doctor Mitchell says they conduct a lot of targeted interventions, which is a common practice in public health in Fiji.

He says they are starting to recognise that many people in key population groups belong to the iTaukei community.

He says many of them are engaged in high-risk behaviour, but the reasons are unclear since there is no specific data or research to explain why the iTaukei population is more impacted by HIV compared to other groups.

Doctor Mitchell adds that an effective HIV response requires targeted approaches and with this, they are developing messages tailored to groups with known specific risk factors, providing them with the right information so they understand how their practices could lead to HIV and other blood-borne viruses.