HIV patients receive treatment at Phạm Ngọc Thạch Hospital in HCM City (Photo VNA)
HCM City (VNA) – As the
is being integrated into the , raising
awareness of healthcare workers is important in addressing discrimination and
stigma.
“Stigma and discrimination related
to HIV remain among the biggest barriers to universal access to HIV health
services, and this leads to a high number of AIDS-related deaths,” said
Marie-Odile Emond, country director of UNAIDS (United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS) Vietnam.
Despite great efforts from the
Government and affected communities over the years, discrimination still
exists in schools, workplace, family, community and healthcare facilities, she
said at a conference held in HCM City on December 1.
This has hindered Vietnam’s progress
towards achieving testing and treatment 90-90-90 targets (90 percent of all
people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90 percent of all people
with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy; and
90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral
suppression) and the goal of ending AIDS by 2030, she said.
Vietnam has a clear supportive legal
framework that addresses HIV stigma and discrimination, including the Law on
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control and many sub-law instruments.
“The challenge often lies in
inconsistent enforcement of these across all sectors and at all levels, and as
the law cannot cover all situations,” she added.
In 2015, UNAIDS launched a
fast-track approach, focusing on innovative interventions to reduce
discrimination in healthcare settings in large cities, including HCM City.
The pilot project was implemented
between September 2016 and December 2017 in three health facilities in HCM
City: Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital in HCM City, District 6 Hospital, and District 4
Preventive Medical Centre.
The project includes two major
components: assessment of sigma and discrimination in healthcare settings and
interventions to reduce HIV related sigma and discrimination.
After more than a year of
implementation, the results and useful lessons learned from the project will
inform the national policy to reduce discrimination in healthcare settings and
expand this effort in other high-burden provinces, with support from
development partners.
Findings from the project show that
it was necessary to measure stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings to
develop evidence-based interventions that would improve the quality of health
care services.
A participatory training approach
with healthcare workers to share views and agree on action, as well as dialogue
between patients and health care providers to better understand stigma and
discrimination issues and health facilities’ procedures, are critical factors
to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
Discrimination comes from limited
awareness and knowledge of HIV, HIV transmission, and lack of universal
precautions among healthcare workers, said Le Tien Dung, deputy director of Pham
Ngoc Thach Hospital.
The programme’s participatory
training with proved useful and led to initial changes, according
to Dung.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
