Drugs, denial and stigma: the babies and children swept up in Fiji’s HIV nightmare

Vulnerable young people, partners of drug users and victims of sexual violence also among those afflicted in world's fastest growing HIV epidemic

The night her baby's heart stopped, Clare* blamed herself. Had she taken her out in the cold too much? Had she damaged her lungs by drinking iced water when she was pregnant? She fixated on Andi's tiny chest, willing it to suck in air, rushing her to hospital in Fiji for the second time in as many days.

All through the early hours Andi* clung to life. Doctors performed CPR several times, puncturing the month-old baby's chest to insert a drain, removing fluid from around her lungs. She was really, really sick and they didn't know what was going on ... she was getting weaker and weaker," Clare says. She sat by her daughter's bedside. She prayed.