Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked ministries, departments and localities to persist with goals and measures to fight HIV/AIDS, drugs and prostitution as they are on the rise in some remote northwestern and central provinces.

Addressing a national online conference in Hanoi on July 8 to review the fight against HIV/AIDS, drugs and prostitution in the January-June period and set tasks for the remaining months of this year, Deputy PM Phuc called for the involvement of society to combat drug trafficking and prostitution.

He asked the National Committee for Prevention and Control of AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution to enhance inspections and work with localities which are hotbeds of social evils. Meanwhile, the police force, the People’s Procuracies and People’s Courts at all levels were requested to increase investigations and prosecutions as well as deal with violations in this field.

The Deputy PM urged the ministries, agencies and localities to compile and disseminate anti-drug and prostitution documents, use the State budget in a cost-effective way and mobilise social resources and international aid for the fight.

They were also required to promptly submit to the Government a project on renewing drug detoxification schemes while assisting localities in building community-based rehabilitation models, thus helping drug addicts integrate back into the community.

In order to combat drugs effectively, Deputy PM Phuc asked the Ministry of Public Security to work with relevant agencies to detect and crack down on drug crime, including the smuggling of drugs into Vietnam.

He assigned the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to closely watch over services prone to prostitution.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Health is responsible for launching plans to realise the National Strategy on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, spreading methadone treatment in localities and working out plans to treat methamphetamine addicts, he said.

Since the beginning of this year, competent agencies have detected over 2,600 cases, arrested more than 3,500 drug smugglers and confiscated 160kg of heroin along the Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-China borders.

Numerous high-profile prostitution rings have been busted in major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The number of HIV/AIDS-infected victims has been down from the same period in 2012. However, the sexual transmission of HIV is on an upward trend, especially among women aged 30-39.-VNA