Vietnamese civil society organisations promotes HIV prevention
1/12/19
Civil society
organisations (CSOs) had contributed much to HIV/AIDS
prevention and control, but obstacles remained in their work, experts said at
conference this week in Hanoi.
The conference was joint-organised by the Global Fund
to Fight HIV/AIDS under the Vietnam Union of Science and
Technology Associations (VUSTA) and the United Nations Programme on HIV and
AIDS (UNAIDS).
The conference coincided with World AIDS Day which will fall on December
1. It aimed to collect ideas and propose measures to enhance CSO’s
roles in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
Experts said the funding for CSO work mainly came
from international support, as Vietnam did not have a law or policy
for State funding for CSOs supplying HIV/AIDS prevention services.
Pham Nguyen Ha, project deputy director of VUSTA, said the obstacles related to
policies, funding and organisation.
To uphold the role of CSOs, Ha asked the Vietnam Administration of
HIV/AIDS Control and the Ministry of Health to set policies which allowed
CSOs to tender for services related to HIV/AIDS prevention.
Detailed guidance on the work should be issued, he said.
Associate Professor Tran Kim Chung from the Central Institute for Economic
Management said to resolve obstacles related to finance, localities should
calculate all the international support they received and then come up with a
budget to support HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
Provincial departments of health and departments of finance should cooperate
with each other to set up funds that were suitable for each locality,
she said.
Chung proposed simplifying administrative procedures to make it easier for CSOs
to access loans.
Speaking at the conference, Nghiem Vu Khai, deputy chairman of VUSTA, said that
over the years, Vietnam and international organisations including UNAIDS had tried their
best to reach the 90-90-90 target. This means that by next year, 90 percent of
all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90 percent of all people
with diagnosed HIV infections will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy
(ART), and 90 percent of all people receiving ART will have viral suppression.
All of the targets are towards AIDS elimination by 2030.
CSOs played an important role in supplying services for HIV/AIDS prevention
for people facing high risk of the disease, he said.
The CSOs also contributed ideas to amend laws and policies related to the
issue, said Khải, adding that they also offered free consultancy via
hotlines and training courses.
Over the past 10 years, Vietnam had treated nearly 60,000 heroin addicts
with methadone, and was providing ARV for more than 50,000 people
living with HIV/AIDS, according to the VUSTA.
All of the patients have free medical insurance cards./.
All comments [ 13 ]
A majority of opinions shared the view that authorities’ management is a key factor to promote private involvement in the work.
There is the need to create favourable conditions for private health care establishments to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and control services, partly by issuing specific financial cooperation mechanism to attract them.
Over 50 social enterprises, community organisations and private clinics have offered new choices to meet demand of HIV victims.
It is hoped to erase discrimination against people living with the virus and encourage them to stick with the treatment.
It is alarming that while HIV infections are reduced significantly in high-risk groups such as drug addicts (from 29-30 percent to 9-10 percent) and sex workers (from 5 percent to 3.4 percent), the rate is rising in the group of men having sex with men (from 7.4 percent to 11.4 percent).
Vietnam is the second country in Asia to launch PrEP service nationwide, after Thailand.
The 90-90-90 goal means 90 percent of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
The campaign aims to raise the awareness of the public, people living with HIV and suppliers of HIV/AIDS prevention and control services about the message.
It encourages people living with HIV to access treatment services early, strictly follow treatment regiments and take regular tests for viral load, while easing discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients.
I hope that Vietnam will achieve the 90-90-95 goal.
Vietnam was the first among beneficiary countries of PEPFAR to issue a document guiding national-scale communication activities on the U=U message.
To deal with the situation, the Ministry of Health, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and PATH organisation have launched a programme to promote the engagement of the private sector in the work
Currently, 140,000 people with HIV/AIDS are receiving treatment at public health care establishments, along with about 10,000 others using private facilities, including those accepting health insurance.
Your comments