Globally, young women aged 15–24 are most vulnerable to HIV, with infection rates twice as high as in young men, at 0.6%. This disparity is most pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa, where 3.1% of young women are living with HIV, versus 1.3% of young men. Each minute one young woman acquires HIV, accounting for 22% of all new HIV infections, with sexual transmission being the dominant mode of infection. Much remains to be done to ensure that young people are able to correctly identify ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV.

Since the start of HIV serologic surveillance in 1993, the country’s epidemic is described
as low and slow due to the fact that the national aggregate’s prevalence has never
gone beyond one percent. However, behavioral surveillance is showing that risk behaviors are high among the most-at-risk population. The 2007 IHBSS showed that 52% of IDUs shared needles and syringes the last time they injected. The same survey showed that condom use in different populations varied : 71% for establishment-based female sex workers, 59% for freelance female sex workers, 33% for male clients of female sex workers, 24% for injecting drug users and 42% during anal sex among MSM. The highlight of the survey was the finding that interaction among and between the risk populations and their low risk sex partners exists.

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This report presents the results of the study entitled Discourses and Representations of HIV in Fiji and their Impact on the Experience of People Living with HIV and AIDS. This study was conducted in collaboration with the Reproductive Health Clinics of Suva, Lautoka and Labasa and the Fiji Network for People Living with HIV and AIDS (FJN+) between November 2007 and December 2008.