Vietnamplus

More than 42,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Vietnam had received antiretroviral (ARV) drugs covered by the health insurance fund as of the end of October.

Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Committee for AIDS, Drug and Prostitution Prevention and Control Vu Duc Dam hosted a reception in Hanoi on November 29 for Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific Eamonn Murphy.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) had contributed much to HIV/AIDS prevention and control, but obstacles remained in their work, experts said at conference this week in Hanoi.

The fight against HIV/AIDS has always been a priority of Hanoi, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Hong Son said at a meeting on November 29 in response to the World AIDS Day (December 1).

Vietnam has made a stride in the fight against HIV/AIDS in recent years, recording a declined number of new newly-diagnosed cases of HIV, those living with and killed by AIDS.

Hanoi has been conducting various HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities towards the 90-90-90 goal by 2020, officials said at a regular meeting between the municipal Party Committee with press agencies on November 13.

A national communication campaign named “undetectable equals untransmittable” (U=U, or Khong phat hien=Khong lay truyen K=K in Vietnamese) was launched in Hanoi on October 22 with the support of the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Due to the reduction in international funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, the private sector is expected to get more involved in providing treatment opportunities for people living with the virus, contributing to putting an end to the epidemic by 2030.

The Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) under the Health Ministry, the US Embassy and several international organisations held a seminar in Hanoi on August 30 to discuss the private sector’s participation in Vietnam’s HIV/AIDS prevention and control programme.

A project on helping children living with HIV or affected by HIV/AIDS benefit from their legal rights was launched in Ho Chi Minh City on July 30.

The Ministry of Health’s Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control on June 12 delivered the first free pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicine to people with high risk of HIV exposure in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Undetectable=Untransmittable or K=K (Khong phat hien=Khong lay truyen) campaign was launched in Hanoi on May 3 with a training course on communications work for the campaign.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Paediatrics Hospital No1’s neurology and infectious diseases department has admitted children with HIV whose mothers did not have HIV tests during their pregnancy.

There were about 10,000 new HIV carriers detected in 2018, including 2,000 fatalities, equivalent to those in 2017.

HCM City is expected to treat nearly 4,000 people with HIV/AIDS who have health insurance cards in the first quarter of next year, following the cessation of free treatment for all such patients in the country, according to the city HIV/AIDS Prevention Centre.

The VAAC-US.CDC Project has provided funding worth 71.06 billion VND (3.03 million USD) for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes in Thanh Hoa since August 2013, accounting for 71 percent of the central province’s total budget for the work.

The National Action Month against HIV/AIDS 2018 was launched at a ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City on December 1 with the participation of Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien and nearly 2,000 representatives of students, armed forces and mass organizations.

As many as 89 percent of HIV/AIDS patients receiving antiretroviral drug (ARV) treatment in Vietnam have signed up for health insurance cards so far, with the figure expected to exceed 90 percent by the end of this year.

The National Hospital of Tropical Diseases and the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) signed a record of discussions for a cooperation project to set up a bench-to-bedside system for sustainable anti-virus (ARV) and HIV prevention in Vietnam.

Vietnam will continue to be a responsible member of the United Nations (UN) who actively joins its activities to ensure peace, stability, cooperation and development, said permanent Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong on October 26.