The health sector will increase public awareness of HIV/AIDS, focusing on mountainous areas and regions where ethnic groups live.

According to the Vietnam Administrations of HIV/AIDS Control under the Ministry of Health, the nation has 213,413 alive HIV-infected people and 63,373 people with AIDS. The number of people that have died from AIDS is 65,133.

The national average of HIV infections is 243 per 100,000 people. The northern province of Dien Bien has the highest rate in the country, 1,015 per 100,000 people.

In the five first months of this year, the country recorded 4,376 new HIV-infected cases, 2,029 patients living with AIDS and 733 deaths from AIDS. New HIV–positive cases have been uncovered in various provinces and cities such as Ho Chi Minh City (801 cases), Nghe An (231 cases), Hanoi (223 cases), Dien Bien (202 cases) and Dong Nai (166 cases).

HIV is found in 98 percent of districts in Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities.

The sexual transmission of the HIV virus is rising, and makes up 45.3 percent of HIV cases in people aged 15-49. The rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission is 2.7 percent. 10.5 percent of people with the virus did not clarify the source of their infection.

To reach national HIV/AIDS prevention targets, the health sector will focus on expanding and improving the quality of relevant activities to reduce the harms of HIV/AIDS.

It will also reinforce and diversify the models of voluntary HIV tests, and give priority to difficult and remote areas with poor health facilities in northern mountainous provinces.-VNA