[File Photo]
The cost of treating Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) has reached alarming levels, placing enormous pressure on Fiji’s health system as 80 percent of adult deaths are now linked to the diseases.
Speaking during the opening of a health project, JP Bayly Trust Board of Trustees member Rufina Latu says expensive treatments, including kidney dialysis, are becoming increasingly common as the country battles what she describes as “a killer in Fiji.”
Latu says heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and mental health conditions continue to devastate families, with hospitals seeing severe complications every day.
She says people are dying far too young, many in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and stressed that many of these illnesses are preventable through healthier lifestyles and early intervention.
“People need not die so early. They have a family to look after. The Ministry of Health step survey in 2025 gave us some very strong, revealing statistics that NCDs are killing our people.”
Latu says the Ministry of Health’s 2025 STEP Survey paints a grim picture, revealing that NCDs are continuing to claim the lives of Fijians at an alarming rate.
Nuffield Health Centre Senior Medical Officer Dr Joji Naqaravatu says prevention begins in communities, where people have access to healthy food, safe spaces for children to play and a culture that encourages regular exercise.
He says projects that improve community health will help build healthier generations and reduce the growing burden of NCDs on Fiji’s health system.
