USAID supports Vietnam to forge community links in HIV prevention

Health workers give advice to HIV patient (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Prime Minister
has approved a non-refundable aid package from the US Agency for International
Development () to strengthen links in .

The project will be carried out in the southern
economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City worth 2.1 million USD in official development
assistance (ODA), which aims to enhance community-based services to support a
sustainable national HIV/AIDS response.

Its specific targets include providing HIV/AIDS
prevention services for homosexual men and women and people living with HIV in
the city, as well as increase human resources and capacity for community-based
groups and organisations (CBOs).

Within five years, the project will access to
about 48,299 homosexual men in the city through CBOs, nearly 90 percent of whom
will be sent to HIV testing facilities.

The project strives to have 90 percent of people
living with HIV know their status, while 90 percent of people who are diagnosed
with HIV will receive antiretroviral drugs  (ARV), and 90 percent of people on ARV
will have the virus controlled at a low and stable level.

It will also support about 3,633 people living
with HIV along with 38,337 prostitutes and drug users in the city.-VNA