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Fiji records 647 HIV/AIDS cases to date

Xinhua, December 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Fiji has recorded 647 HIV/AIDS cases to date, the Pacific island country's Minister for Health Jone Usamate said Tuesday.

Owing to stronger awareness for testing and an increased opportunity for screening through prenatal clinics in Fiji, HIV/AIDS cases were slowly increasing in recent years, Usamate said, urging high-risk populations to undergo HIV tests in the country's bigger hospitals.

The health minister reiterated the call for "Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths," - a global vision.

Meanwhile, Fiji's former president Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, a long time advocate in the fight against HIV/AIDS, urged Fijians to try their best to prevent the disease, despite its relatively low prevalence in Fiji, whose total population is around 840,000.

"I always tell them, now look at the countries that have the worst records of HIV/AIDS now were once like us with low prevalence. They were at our stage, they ignored the advice of experts, the advice of the medial people and they had to pay the price," Nailatikau said. Enditem