Fiji National University’s (FNU) College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (CMNHS) is collaborating with the renowned Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, Drug-Free World Fiji, the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), and the Ministry of Health Fiji (MoH), to conduct a Rapid Assessment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and people who use drugs with a focus on people who inject drugs in Fiji. This critical work is funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) with financial support from development partners.

In January this year, the Government of Fiji declared an outbreak of HIV, significantly affecting people who use drugs.

Interviews and “Talanoas” with community members and key stakeholders will be used to inform HIV services and responses. Through the Rapid Assessment being conducted in Suva, we aim to gain a better understanding of drug use and HIV, to design an evidence-informed public health response.

Fiji Chief Investigator, CMNHS Associate Dean Research and Director of the Fiji Institute of Pacific Health Research (FIPHR), Associate Professor Donald Wilson remarked, “We want to find about the practices that put our people who use and inject drugs, at risk of HIV and other blood-borne infections, as well as their knowledge and experiences of drug use and HIV. We also want to understand the barriers to accessing stigma-free health services including HIV testing and access to sterile needles and syringes.”

Australian Chief Investigator, Professor Lisa Maher from the Kirby Institute, with more than 30 years’ experience working with communities who use and inject drugs, said that the study will elicit rich qualitative data from the community, ensuring that their voices are heard, so that they can be part of Fiji’s HIV response. The work, she said, will be central to the Ministry of Health Fiji’s policy and programmatic response, including the delivery of essential harm reduction services to this population.

Co-investigator and Director of Drug-Free World Fiji, Ms Kalesi Volatabu, is excited that this work is finally taking off. “Understanding the lives of people who use, and particularly those who inject drugs, will shed light on the need for support systems and interventions that government should consider for people who use drugs, in light of our HIV crisis,” she said.

Co-investigator and CEO of AIVL, John Gobeil added, “By gaining a better understanding of people who use drugs, their challenges, needs, practices and level of knowledge of HIV and its transmission will provide crucial information to decision-makers for evidence-based and people-centred HIV strategic actions like harm reduction, testing, and treatment to effectively tackle the HIV crisis in Fiji.’’

Ensuring the communities are central to this research, the project kicked off last Thursday with a three-day training on qualitative research and rapid assessments for key affected populations, researchers and health care workers. The training is also addressing key structural barriers and power dynamics. Stakeholder groups represented at the training were very appreciative that specific challenges pertaining to drug use and to collecting information about drug use in different communities were discussed with deep insights, with respect and in a professional and culturally informed way.

The project team looks forward to sharing the results of this study in the near future and extending from this engagement on the national HIV crises, to further its relationship with people who use and inject drugs, to develop future research partnerships.

For more information visit, http://www.fnu.ac.fj

ENDS