Vietnam launches program to stabilize HIV prevalence in 2007

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Mar 11 2007

Vietnam's Ministry of Health has launched a program to stabilize the country's HIV prevalence in 2007, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

According to Duong Quoc Trong, head of the country's AIDS Prevention Department, the program will be funded with $9.4 million from the country's budget and from international donors.

About $5.1 million was spent on Vietnam's HIV/AIDS prevention programs in 2006, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

The new program aims to provide between 10,000 and 12,000 HIV-positive people in the country with access to antiretroviral drugs, an increase of about 50%; implement a risk-reduction program for injection drug users; and distribute condoms in 30 provinces and cities.

In addition, 75 HIV testing centers in 55 provinces and cities will be improved, and HIV testing and counseling will be provided in 40 provinces and 100 districts, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

As of December 2006, Vietnam had recorded 116,565 HIV cases, 20,195 AIDS cases and 11,802 AIDS-related deaths, according to the Department of AIDS Prevention (Vietnam News Agency, 3/7).

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.