Fiji has declared HIV a national emergency after a rapid rise in infections over five years placed the virus at the centre of a public-health response for a population of a little more than 900,000 people.
The declaration, made on 15 September, comes as Fiji experiences one of the sharpest increases in new HIV infections globally. The country recorded 2,016 new HIV diagnoses in 2025, compared with 126 in 2019. An estimated one in every 60 adults is now living with HIV, up from one in 167 adults five years ago. HIV prevalence has almost tripled during that period.
Health Minister Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said the scale of the crisis required a response beyond the measures already under way. “an outbreak-level response is no longer sufficient,” he stated.
The emergency follows two years of outbreak response efforts and reflects the government’s view that existing action has failed to contain the rise in infections. Fiji endorsed its HIV Surge Strategy 2024–2027 in 2024. The strategy is now being supported by international partners including the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, known as UNAIDS.
The government’s response will expand access to free HIV testing and prevention services. It will also offer free treatment to people diagnosed with HIV.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, is being made available for people at substantial risk of getting HIV. PrEP is prevention medicine intended to reduce the risk of acquiring the virus.
The response also includes harm-reduction measures for people who inject drugs. The government plans to introduce a syringe and needle programme, though legislative amendments must first be brought before parliament to allow it to proceed.
Lalabalavu said Fiji already has sufficient supplies of syringes and needles. The brief does not set out when the proposed legislative amendments will be introduced or when the programme could begin.
The spread of HIV among pregnant women has added urgency to the emergency response. Two in every 100 pregnant women in Fiji are living with HIV. In 2025, 59 babies were born with HIV and 18 babies died from HIV before their first birthday.
Those figures show that the rise in infections extends into maternal and infant health, alongside the wider adult population. The government has set out testing, treatment, prevention and harm-reduction measures as the main elements of its response, while the underlying causes of the steep increase in infections remain unspecified.
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