Medical staff gives ARV treatment consultations to patient. (Photo: VNA) The 90-90-90 Plan, which aims to end the AIDS epidemic in Vietnam by 2020 under a HIV prevention programme initiated by the United Nations, will be piloted in five localities from 2017-2015.
The beneficiary localities are Dien Bien and Son La provinces in the north, Nghe An and Thanh Hoa province in the central region and Ho Chi Minh City in the south.
According to the Ministry of Health’s Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, the plan includes three targets: 90 percent of people living with HIV will know their status, 90 percent of people who know their status are on regular antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and 90 percent of all people on treatment will have undetectable levels of HIV in their body (known as viral suppression).
In order to realise the goals, localities need to enumerate the number of people living with HIV in the community and set up lists of hamlets, villages and families that include people in the risk group, thus calling on high-risk individuals to get tested and maintain ARV treatment, the Department said.
They are required to provide people living with HIV with consultations, tests and treatment while offering local medical workers training courses on accessing people living with HIV and consulting and testing skills.
The efforts aim to facilitate early detection and ensure proper treatment for all people living with HIV.
The localities will also increase investments in building infrastructure facilities for HIV testing at district-level hospitals.
Coordination mechanisms between hospitals and medical centres at the district level will be established and implemented to supervise and manage people living with HIV and raise their awareness of the importance of ARV treatment.
Dr. Nguyen Hoang Long, Director of the Department, said that his agency will work with sponsors to support target localities in implementing the plan.
The model is expected to be expanded to other localities, he added.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam currently has around 260,000 people living with HIV and some 12,000 new HIV infections are detected each year. Of those living with HIV, only around 90,000 are currently receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.-VNA
