It was an early start to the day for close to a hundred people who gathered under the Apia Town clock area to commemorate those who had lost their lives to HIV AIDS over the years. 

Yesterday was marked as World AIDS Day and the day begin with an early morning candlelight vigil.

The Minister of Health, Valasi Tafito Selesele said Samoa had come a long way since the first HIV/AIDS case was detected in the country.

"This is for the safety of everyone, making sure that everyone stays alive and well in Samoa," he said.

"The first day of December is a day of remembrance around the world for AIDS and also marks the beginning of the faafafine and faatama week of 2022."

The Candlelight vigil was organized by the Samoa Faafafine and Faatama Association to remember the Samoans who have lost the battle against HIV AIDS.

The event is also the celebration of 17 years of the establishment the SFA in Samoa who have always been at the forefront of the World AIDS day celebration and would like to continue to do so in years to come.

According to the Ministry of Health’s sixth annual report to UNAIDS in 2017, the first case of HIV recorded in Samoa was in 1990. 

“Since that time, the recorded prevalence of the virus has remained low in prevalence (0.005%) with no new cases being captured between 2012-2015," the report stated. 

“However, testing rates are low with around only four to five per cent of the population being tested each year according to quarterly surveillance reports." 

The report points out that most of those tests come from routine antenatal blood panels in mothers having their first antenatal care visit while voluntary testing, and testing in males are low. 

“For these reasons, the full impact of HIV/AIDS on Samoa remains relatively unknown,” the report said.

The report pointed out that a quarter of the documented HIV cases are mother to child transmissions, which suggests that HIV may be more prevalent than what current surveillance systems are detecting.