People living with HIV/AIDS are consulted and give ARV in a health centre in Ha Long city, Quang Ninh province.(Photo: VNA) Dam, who is also chairman of the National Committee for AIDS, Drug andProstitution Prevention and Control, has called on ministries and agencies toimprove the legal framework and issue detailed instructions to better implementthe amended law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control that was approved byNational Assembly last year.
He asked for diverse measures to be used for HIV/AIDS prevention andcontrol and increasing the provision of preventive treatment for people inhigh-risk groups.
The Deputy PM said he expected more HIV/AIDS patients would be able toaccess ARV treatment with the medical costs covered by the public healthinsurance fund.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, since the first HIV/AIDScase was detected in Vietnam in 1990, until now, more than 102,000 people inthe country have died of AIDS and about 250,000 HIV patients are still alive, but only 210,000 knowtheir HIV status.
Vietnam has a rate of HIV-infected people receiving antiretroviral (ARV)treatment with a viral load below the inhibitory threshold reaching 96 percent,meaning that they have undetectable levels of HIV in their bodies and they poseno risk of HIV transmission to their sexual partners who are negative to HIV.
Over the past 10 years, Vietnam has kept the community HIV infection rate below0.3 percent.
According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),since 2000 the country has deployed preventive measures to stop 400,000 peoplefrom being infected with HIV while 150,000 received treatment that preventeddeath from AIDS.
In 2014, Vietnam became the first country in Asia to adopt the 90-90-90 targetsset by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, under which by 2020, 90percent of those living with HIV would know their HIV status; 90 percent ofpeople who know their status are in HIV treatment, and 90 percent of allpatients in treatment would have undetectable levels of HIV in their bodies.
Only the third target was achieved by the year 2020.
Vietnam is known as one of four countries with the best HIV/AIDS treatment inthe world along with Germany, the UK and Switzerland, Health Minister NguyenThanh Long said when he introduced to the National Assembly the draft ofamendments to Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control last year.
At a recent meeting highlighting key tasks in HIV/AIDS, drug and prostitutionprevention and control this year, Dam emphasised the need to increase publicunderstanding and awareness over the issues.
He called on press and media agencies to support communication campaigns.
Regarding drug crime prevention and control, he asked the ministries ofsecurity, defence and finance to step up the fight on drug crimes, particularlyin border areas.
Ministries of Public Security, Industry and Trade, Finance, Health, Agricultureand Rural Development were told to direct strict control of precursors andaddictive drugs in import, export and production and business so criminalscould not take advantage of legal loopholes to produce synthetic drugs.
The Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs was asked to study andpropose policies on drug addiction prevention, evaluate the pilotimplementation of detoxification support models and improve the capacityof drug addiction treatment./.
VNA
