A woman reads information about HIV/AIDS prevention and control (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The national actionmonth on HIV/AIDS prevention and control is underway, providing an occasion forVietnam and partners to look back on anti-HIV/AIDS achievements obtained overthe last 30 years.
This year’s national action month, from November10 to December 10, is themed “30 years of response to and opportunities to endthe AIDS epidemic in Vietnam”, as 2020 is the 30th year since the first HIVinfection was recorded in the country, according to the Vietnam Administrationof HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) under the Ministry of Health.
On August 14, the Prime Minister approved thenational strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention and control for the new period, whichtargets an end to the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Given this, the national action month is animportant occasion for Vietnam and partners to review HIV/AIDS prevention andcontrol attainments during the last three decades and learn lessons from them,the VAAC noted.
It said that there will be a number of practicalactivities to be held during the month, including a conference reviewing the 30years of anti-HIV/AIDS efforts which will also mark the national action monthand the World AIDS Day (December 1).
Authorities will also present gifts todisadvantaged children infected with HIV or affected by the epidemic at atreatment centre in Hanoi’s Ba Vi district.
VAAC Deputy Director Hoang Dinh Canh said theHIV/AIDS epidemic in the community has continued to ease while HIV testingservices have been expanded and diversified, helping to detect nearly 10,000new HIV cases.
Besides, social organisations’ participation inHIV/AIDS prevention and control has also been enhanced, the treatment of opioidaddiction maintained and reformed, and the provision ofPrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for HIV prevention implemented verywell.
The antiretroviral (ARV) therapy has also beenfurther expanded with higher quality, he noted, adding that more than 153,000patients have successfully changed the ARV therapy from free drugs to thosecovered by health insurance.
However, Canh also acknowledged certaindifficulties in the HIV/AIDS combat such as the emergence of new groups withhigh-risk behaviour, the shortage of personnel for prevention and controlefforts, and the shortage of funding due to foreign sponsors’ aid reduction.
In the national strategy for ending AIDS by2030, Vietnam targets to bring the number of newly detected HIV infections tounder 1,000 each year, the fatalities linked with HIV/AIDS less than one per100,000 people, and that HIV/AIDS will be no longer a public health concern./.
VNA
