Josefa Sigavolavola 
[Photo: FILE]
Health officials are sounding the alarm as diabetes-related amputations continue to rise in Fiji, with concerns that many patients are delaying medical treatment in favour of herbal medicine and faith-based healing.
The Ministry of Health says this trend persists despite years of education and awareness campaigns.
Recent figures reveal that around 70 percent of surgeries carried out in the country are diabetes related.
The Assistant Minister for Health, Penioni Ravunawa, highlighted cultural challenges as a contributing factor to late-stage presentations.
“Unfortunately, with our communal system also in Fiji, we tend to rely on herbal medicine and other faith beliefs. That is something that people resort to and then only come into the hospital at the late stage of their diabetic complication.”
Additionally, Fiji performs 3–5 amputations per day, which equates to one lower limb amputation every 12 hours for diabetic patients.
A recent survey shows about 90,300 adults in Fiji (aged 20–79) are living with diabetes. This translates to an age-standardized prevalence of 16.6 percent, or roughly one in every six adults.
Ravunawa says community-level education remains critical.
“We have over 220 village health workers all across the country, and their work is to educate the villagers, the people in the settlement, in the community to take care of their own health, meaning their diet choice, their physical exercise, their rest time, all that is important.”
With diabetes-related cases continuing to rise, authorities are urging the public to seek medical care early and utilize professional services, rather than relying on traditional or faith-based remedies that often delay treatment until it is too late.
