The mosquito-borne disease zika has spread to Fiji, but the island nation is taking charge.

Seventeen confirmed cases of zika have so far been recorded in Fiji, according to Sunil Chandra, spokesman of the Fijian Ministry of Health.

Chandra says the ministry, along with other government agencies and not-for-profit organisations, will be a holding a national clean-up campaign to “destroy the mosquito breeding places to prevent the spread of the virus”.

“This will be a month long campaign and it is anticipated that the people and the municipality will work closely to address the issue.”

A senior lecturer of physiology at the University of Fiji, Dr Abhijit Gogoi, says since tourism is vital to Fiji’s economy it has been a concern for the island nation since natural disasters and fears of infectious diseases can potentially affect numbers of inbound tourists. But he adds that the country is resilient.

“Tourism is a concern whenever there is a panic. First HIV, then SARS, then chickungunya and now zika … Every time there is a disaster or an epidemic, the country that depends so much on tourism for the economy does get affected by the sudden decrease in tourist inflow.

“But until now the tourism industry has not been affected here because of zika virus.”

Likewise, a report released from the Fiji Bureau of Statistics shows no effect on tourism as of March 2016 despite news reports of zika in Fiji. The number of visitors for March increased by nearly 10 percent compared to a year earlier. The report also showed that some 74 percent of all visitors were tourists.

Widespread mosquito carrier
A study of the zika virus in the South Pacific by Jose Derraik and David Slaney published last year suggests that the Aedes aegypti species of mosquito is the primary carrier of the virus and is widespread in the South Pacific.

The virus was first isolated from a monkey in the Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947, the study says.

Auckland University infectious disease specialist Siouxsie Wiles says that because the mosquito is widespread in the region, which has humid environmental conditions where these mosquitos can thrive, it was a matter of time before Fiji would be affected.

“It’s just the perfect storm of getting it to the right place at the right time with an abundance of mosquitoes and an abundance of people.”

Similarly, Auckland University’s Liggins Institute senior research fellow Dr José Derraik says although it is possible that the global spread of the zika virus has been caused by a mutation since its discovery in 1947, it is more likely that the more people travelling to places that have been struck by the zika virus has caused the epidemic to grow faster.

“The rapid movement of people across the world also means that zika virus has been introduced by infected travellers into new areas, where local populations had never been exposed to it. Consequently, as they had no associated immunity, zika virus was able to spread quickly,” Dr Derraik says.

He says, the fact that most people are asymptomatic is also a reason why the virus has been able to spread, as “infected travellers without any symptoms can freely travel from one country to another”, he says.

Dr Wiles explains that the mosquitoes that carry the virus are pregnant females that lay more than one batch of eggs.

Unaware of infection
Dr Derraik says some estimates suggest that 80 percent of the people infected with zika virus are unaware that they have been infected.

The study by Derraik and Slaney shows that the clinical presentation of the disease includes illnesses similar to influenza but in some extreme cases it can also cause cardiac complications and death.

Dr Wiles says evidence is building to show that the zika virus can also cause the Guillan-Barre syndrome, which is well known to happen following infection from a range of viruses.

“It’s a syndrome that can give people muscle weakness, affect people’s breathing and kill them but all of the people that have had the syndrome actually recover quite well.”

She says researchers are also studying whether the disease can be passed on from mother to child as there have been numerous cases in Brazil of children born with microcephaly, a congenital condition associated with stunted brain development, since the outbreak last year.

Dr Gogoi says there is also the probability that this virus could be transmitted sexually.

“As of now there are 8 cases of zika virus reported to be transmitted sexually in Brazil and Haiti.”

Dr Wiles says treatment for the virus has not been found yet because of a lack of resources for research until very recently.

“It’s not something people have been researching to find a cure because it wasn’t thought to be that devastating.”

Methods of control
Dr Wiles says, “the only way to get rid of it [zika] is to get rid of the mosquito.” And she says the most effective way of doing this would be to release genetically modified sterile male mosquitos.

“When they are released and breed with the females the young can’t survive. These genetically modified mosquitoes are released in large numbers so they outcompete the normal males so that when the females breed with the wrong males they don’t get any viable offspring.”

Dr Derraik suggests if measures to prevent getting bitten are taken then travellers need not avoid countries affected by the virus. However, he says the situation is different for pregnant women in light of the association with microcephaly in the foetus.

Dr Gogoi says employing measures of hygiene, using mosquito repellents and nets and ensuring no storage of water in any open rubbish containers or coconut shells, can help contain the spread of the virus.

Anuja Nadkarni is a journalism graduate from AUT University and is currently completing her Honours degree in Communication Studies. She is on the Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies course at the Pacific Media Centre.

Recurring climate change patterns have not only impacted on the communities and landscapes of Fiji but also caused significant damage to the seascape of one of the nation’s pristine wild places – Vatu-i-ra Island.

The director of the Fiji Programme for Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr Sangeeta Mangubhai, has been studying the coral reefs in the Vatu-i-ra seascape, located between Fiji’s two large islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.

Dr Mangubhai’s report on the impact of cyclone Winston on Vatu-i-ra revealed that the strong winds and waves affected coral reefs up to 30m below the surface of the sea.

“Vatu-i-ra Island has a regionally significant seabed population and there is just no vegetation on the leaves so we’re not sure what it is going to do to the seabed population because they need shade and shelter to live there.”

Coral regeneration is a slow process and the report shows that frequent extreme weather events combined with other effects of climate change could take the reefs decades to recover.

“It’s hard because these reefs are already suffering from issues like overfishing… but now they’ve received stress to their physiology, coral loss, coral damage, stress of sea surface temperatures – that combination has led to corals probably aborting their reproduction this year,” Dr Mangubhai says.

Oxfam New Zealand’s senior campaigns and communications specialist Jason Garman says climate changed has caused rising sea temperatures and an increase in pH levels known as ocean acidification. As Garman explains, this phenomenon has led to developments such as coral bleaching.

‘Garden of Eden’
“Coral reefs are the Garden of Eden of life in the sea…this is where the vast majority of the biodiversity will be, so when the coral reefs die then all of those fish no longer have the food source they need and the fish die out or move to another area where they can live.

“Climate change is driving ocean acidification, shellfish are no longer able to create their shells because the water is so acidic that it disintegrates the shell this is also what is driving coral bleaching,” Garman says.

Dr Mangubhai’s research has also identified coral bleaching in the Vatu-i-ra seascape, with some areas experiencing up to 20 percent of bleaching as a result of increased ocean temperatures from the El Niño cycle.

Garman says the trends of El Niño are increasing in severity as a result of climate change and says scientists expect this phenomenon to get worse.

“El Niño has been going on for eons and the problem is that El Niño is caused by a rise in the surface temperature of the oceans in the southern Pacific and the higher the temperature the stronger the weather event is.

“In the past we had very strong cyclones perhaps every 50 years to 100 years but what we’re seeing right now is that those once in a lifetime storms are becoming nearly an annual event.”

Increasing storms
UNICEF Suva’s communication specialist Alice Clements says an increased prevalence of storms is something that involves climate adaptation.

“Since 1970 there have been 11 category five cyclones and two of those have been in the span of 12 months with cyclone Pam in Vanuatu and cyclone Winston in Fiji so we know that things are changed. Fiji has done a phenomenal response to this emergency, they’ve been incredibly organised and they’ve done it quickly.

“In the past something like this would’ve been a shock or something out of the blue but these days they can anticipate that there might be a strong storm coming at some point in their life.”

Climate change adviser for the Secretariat of the Samoa based Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Herman Timmermans says communities and the ecosystems they depend on for everyday goods and services and livelihoods will be more severely impacted on by more intense cyclones and recovery times will be longer.

Timmermans says that the socio-economic and environmental benefits derived are also much greater.

Although Dr Mangubhai’s report did not cover a visual census of the coral reef fish populations, it revealed that semi-pelagic fish and sharks seemed largely unaffected.

Also based on data collected on how the Australian Great Barrier Reef’s recovery from previous cyclone damage, Dr Mangubhai expects the productivity of fisheries to decrease.

Fisheries damage
“The fisheries in the area are valued at more than F$24 million (NZ$16.7 million) – there will obviously be a decline from that, but we don’t know by how much until we understand fully the scale of damage to fisheries in the region.

“Fish need time for the corals to come back to provide that habitat for them to move around and find new homes.”

She says although cyclone Zena — which hit Fiji earlier this month — was a relatively milder category two, it was expected to move the rubble around and cause more abrasions to the corals.

Dr Mangubhai says while rehabilitation of coral reefs is expected to be very expensive, the best option to minimise further impact to the region’s sea life is reduce fishing pressure on the reefs. But she says that is a difficult proposition considering fish is the staple diet of local populations.

“There’s a real challenge between communities now – they need to continue to fish for food security and some of them are going to be under more pressure to fish out their resources for money.

“Then it’s also got a bleaching event sitting on top of a cyclone event so it’s even more than they normally experience and they’re going to need space to recover and it’s really going to depend on how much we can reduce that pressure for the next couple of years, give those corals a chance to come back before we can come back to the same level to be explored again.”

Anuja Nadkarni is a journalism graduate from AUT and is currently completing her Honours degree in Communication Studies. She is on the Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies course.

The Pacific nation’s leading rugby organisation, Samoa’s Rugby Union, has hosted its first Samoa Women’s Rugby Conference and has announced it will be making this an annual event.

The conference was held earlier this month to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8 in the capital Apia. It highlighted the importance of supporting and encouraging the country’s women in rugby.

The SRU’s women’s development officer Toluiva Keneti says the event’s main focus was to address the issue of gender imbalance prevalent in the sport.

“We are looking at using rugby as a tool to break barriers and stereotyping in the community, especially for women playing rugby,” she said.

Senior programme officer for the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development Robert Wong Sin says there are numerous cultural barriers that contribute to the impediment of women’s participation in rugby but he believes things are changing.

“The idea that ‘rugby’s a man’s sport’ or those stereotypes that women are too fragile… those barriers are slowly starting to break down.

“Families are embracing the idea of having their girls participate in more physical sports,” he says.

Room for improvement
Wong Sin says although things are getting better, “there’s still a lot of room for improvement and definitely lots more room for participation”.

The SRU Women’s Rugby Conference took place over the course of two days and brought in 15 female secondary school teachers to partake in workshops to become coaches, referees and sports administrators in their schools.

According to SRU there are currently just over 500 registered female rugby players in Samoa but Keneti says the union lacks female coaches and referees and believes conferences like these will increase female contribution to the sport.

Samoan National Rugby League (NRL) game development manager Gabrielle Apelu is the country’s last remaining pioneer of Samoan women’s rugby and says she understands the challenges of sportswomen best because of her background in rugby but believes Samoa is given a bad rap from New Zealand on issues of gender equality, especially in sport.

“Most Western philosophies that categorise women and barriers to sport never take into consideration cultural values and standards and quantify results in Western terms which are very often misleading and badly interpreted.

“In this day and age there is no stigma. What changes are women’s priorities,” Apelu says.

Chairwoman of the Samoa Women in Sports organisation Nynette Sass says as Samoan women grow up their domestic responsibilities influence their decisions and their focus shifts to their family.

Sports active when young
“Girls are usually active in sports when young, but progress to refrain from sports as they get up to the university level to focus more on studies. By the time they are in the workforce, they’re required to work and prioritise their families and all other obligations ahead of themselves, hence there is no time to do what is deemed at times as frivolous activities.”

United Nations Samoa representative Mele Maualaivao says financial challenges are also a contributing factor to sports lacking female involvement.

“If women’s sports were able to be the great income earner that they are for men, many more young women would be encouraged to play professionally,” Maualaivao says.

Nynette Sass says encouraging women to play rugby also has health benefits for the nation.

“Samoa is waking up to the realisation of the bad effects of a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating of processed food with increasing numbers of people falling prey to Non Communicable Diseases (NCD). Lately the message has really hit home with the increase in cancer deaths.”

According to the World Health Organisation half of all adults in Samoa are at high risk of developing NCDs such as cancer, diabetes and obesity. A report by the Samoan government last year showed that cases of high blood pressure and obesity have almost doubled in the past 10 years.

Domestic violence
Keneti, Maualaivao and Wong Sin are taking their gender balance message beyond rugby and sport. They are also encouraging women to take a stand against domestic violence through their initiatives.

A study carried out by the WHO last year found that from the 1640 women aged between 15 and 49 years surveyed 65 per cent of respondents reported violence that was either physical, emotional or sexual.

According to Wong Sin, initiatives through sport are the most efficient and effective way to strive toward addressing issues like gender equality.

“In sport there should be no discrimination. Sport encourages team building and character development and develops leadership. So we feel having this forum sustained over the next few years will encourage women to take essential positions not only on the field but also in the background and contributing to sports development overall.”

Keneti says initiatives like the SRU conference are educating women to stand up to violence and encouraging women to play alongside men.

This, she says, nurtures a sense of equality, which can build confidence to face any environment and to “never go silent”.

“This is not just about rugby itself, it’s not about a rugby ball, not about how famous rugby can become in Samoa: it is about educating women that it is a game for all,” she says.

Maualaivao believes “it is an exciting time to be a woman in Samoa,” and says she is optimistic about bringing change in attitudes toward women’s issues in Samoa.

“Any time a woman is asked to think of herself as a woman first, it can bring enlightenment to her situation and to her understanding of the challenges she may face.

“Empowerment of women is key to all other aspects of gender equality being addressed.”

Anuja Nadkarni is a journalism graduate from AUT and is completing her Honours degree in Communication Studies. She is currently on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

By Anuja Nadkarni

“Subtle” racial discrimination faced by Māori and Pacific Islander pupils is the subject of a video campaign led by University of Auckland students.

The campaign arose after a PhD study last year showed everyday racial discrimination was one of the main challenges that Māori and Pacific students encountered, says campaigner Raagini Vijaykumar.

The initiative comprises three videos that show the testimonials of 40 students about their experiences at the university, current programmes for Māori and Pacific students, and solutions to the problem.

Vijaykumar says the encounters of “subtle racism” that students share in the video are concerning.

“Just because racism isn’t as overt as before doesn’t mean it’s not an issue that’s affecting people,” she says.

But “there is a risk of people saying that you’re being hyper-sensitive to it.”

Comments students have heard included, “You speak good English for a Tongan” and “You have a wide vocabulary for a Samoan”.

An accelerant-engineering student of Māori descent says other students told him he was “really smart for a Māori”.

Vijaykumar says while conducting the interviews, she and her team were surprised at how normalised discriminatory comments have become.

Television student Corey Sio, who is in his third year at neighbouring AUT University, says he has also experienced subtle racism.

“I have been told that I am a very intelligent Islander,” he says.

“It’s kind of scary that it’s so subtle now as opposed to old racism. New racism – you don’t really know if they’re being racist or if they’re being honest.

Third-year AUT student Corey Sio talks to reporters Anuja Nadkhani and Anya Truong-George. Runtime 1:51

First-year AUT University student Samantha Bernard, on the other hand, says she hasn’t experienced racism so far in her Bachelor of Arts course.

“I think if anything I’ve received more support because I’m Pacific Islander.”

Bernard says she regularly gets text messages and emails advising her about study groups and providing study tips.

There are also programmes in place at the University of Auckland that assist Māori and Pacific students, but Vijaykumar says “the very fact that they exist and people need a space to go to, shows that mainstream places aren’t catering for them”

Sarah McLean, another of the five students leading the campaign, says the response to the video has been great so far but there has also been some criticism about its focus.

“I think one key thing a lot of people feel in regards to doing the campaign is that we’re doing this only for Māori and Pacific, but we’d rather focus on small groups and tell their story first and then look at approaching other groups as well.”