Hanoi: Various activities held during HIV/AIDS prevention month

A medical worker at the General Hospital of Ha Dong district, Hanoi, gives advice to a pregnant women (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Various activities are underway in Hanoi to promote early
HIV testing so as to achieve the by 2020, also the theme
of this year’s action month for from November
10 to December 10.

Deputy Director of the municipal Preventive
Medicine Centre La Thi Lan said during the month, Hanoi will hold conferences
and workshops on community-based HIV testing and assess the implementation of
the 90 – 90 – 90 targets. 

These targets aim that by 2020, 90 percent of
all people with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of all people with
diagnosed HIV will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90
percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral
suppression.

Different activities to help prevent HIV/AIDS
and raise public awareness have been implemented across 30 districts and
townships in Hanoi. They include the distribution of more than 1.7 million free
syringes and more than 260,000 free condoms to female sex workers and gay men.

Since the beginning of 2017, the local health
sector has worked with non-Governmental organisations to expand HIV screening
at the communal and ward level. There are 14 advisory offices on voluntary HIV
testing at the district level currently.

Lan said the municipal Department of Health will
run communication activities to raise public awareness, focusing on eradicating
, the benefits of and periodic
testing for high-risk groups, and the benefits of antiretroviral therapy and
early access to HIV/AIDS treatment services.

Eighteen establishments providing methadone
treatment for HIV patients have worked effectively in Hanoi. As of the end of
September, about 4,800 persons with HIV had received methadone treatment in the
capital, Lan noted, adding that methadone replacement therapy has resulted in
positive outcomes, helping improve drug abusers’ health and reduce the use of
heroin.

Hanoi recorded 982 new HIV cases in the first
nine months of 2017. The Asian Epidemic Model forecasts the number of
HIV-infected people in the city to exceed 27,000 by 2020.-VNA