(NYT) – Surging drug use has contributed to an epidemic in the Pacific island nation, where one in 60 adults is estimated to be living with the virus.

Fiji has declared a national crisis amid an extraordinary rise of H.I.V. cases, with health officials raising the alarm about an epidemic that has emerged alongside an increase in injectable drug use.

Fiji, a Pacific island nation of fewer than one million people, recorded more than 2,000 new H.I.V. cases in 2025 — 16 times as many as in 2019, the government said in an official statement on Tuesday. One in 60 adults on the archipelago is living with the virus that causes AIDS, the government estimated. (Read More)