FIJI’S health system is not fully ready to combat the increasing HIV/AIDS problem in Fiji, says UNAIDS Pacific Advisor Renata Ram.
In an interview with The Fiji Times online portal The Lens@177, she said Fiji, however, had strategies in place to be better equipped to address the issue.
“Given that we see that there’s widespread of HIV in the country, we need more testing sites, we need more distribution points of the HIV treatment,” Ms Ram said.
“But we have to remember that people, once they get HIV, it’s a lifelong disease that becomes a chronic illness.
“So, this is something that people live with so you need to have services closer to them.”
She said currently there were only three HIV clinics in the country which are based in Lautoka, Suva and Labasa. “However, this needs to be more decentralised. The testing needs to be decentralised, and also the care for people.”
Ms Ram said there was also a need to train healthcare workers on how to manage people living with HIV instead of focussing only on biomedical.
“We have to look at risk factors in the community as well, and how communities where high-risk individuals live can help people with prevention and navigation into health services.
“So, it’s not just a health system in terms of the Ministry of Health, but also looking at how our community organisations play a part into the referral pathways and management of people living with HIV.”
