Print article

Wish to end AIDS by 2030, challenges still lie ahead

VGP – Thanks to foreign assistance and domestic efforts, Viet Nam expects to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

October 26, 2014 6:17 AM GMT+7

Deputy PM Vu Dung Dam

The Ministry of Health on October 25 organized a meeting to respond to the UNAIDS’s 90-90-90 targets which were adopted during the First Latin American and Caribbean Forum on the HIV Continuum of Care, which was held in Mexico City, Mexico, from 26 to 28 May.

These benchmarks include increasing to 90% the proportion of people living with HIV who know their diagnosis, increasing to 90% the proportion of people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral treatment and increasing to 90% the proportion of people on HIV treatment who have an undetectable viral load.

Addressing the event, Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam hailed the coordinating role of the UN and international organizations in supporting Viet Nam in poverty reduction and national development.

Thanks to the external valuable assistance and its own efforts, Viet Nam has attained numerous positive achievements in HIV/AIDS prevention and expects to eradicate the epidemic by 2030.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said by so far over 2,000 drug users in Viet Nam have received Methadone treatment and nearly 90,000 HIV/AIDS carriers have got antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. It results in a significant decline in the number of new HIV infections, AIDS patients and fatalities over the past seven years.

However, Viet Nam is still facing challenges in HIV/AIDS prevention. There are around 12,000-14,000 new HIV infections annually while financial resources for HIV/AIDS prevention are limited and unstable, mainly depending on foreign aid.

Viet Nam has just detected around 56% of the number of new HIV infections, far behind the 90-90-90 targets./.

By Kim Loan