Vietnam expands use of PrEP service to reduce HIV infections
Vietnam is working to expand the use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) service and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to reduce HIV infections in the community.
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is working to expand the use of Pre-ExposureProphylaxis (PrEP) service and antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to reduce HIVinfections in the community.
According to the Vietnam Administration for HIV/AIDS Control(VAAC) under the Ministry of Health, as of September 2020, Vietnam had recordedover 213,000 people living with HIV and 107,810 dead HIV carriers since thefirst case was detected in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990.
Additional 11,000 new infections and 2,800 fatalities arereported in the country each year. At present, nearly 151,000 HIV carriersnationwide are treated with ARV therapy.
VAAC Director Nguyen Hoang Long said that HIV antibody testsare currently conducted at all districts nationwide, while all 63 provinces andcities are able to carry out confirmatory tests.
Vietnam is exerting efforts to expand the application ofconfirmatory tests to the district level.
Vietnam is one of the first countries in the world to applythe PrEP programme. As of September 30, 2020, more than 13,600 people livingwith HIV nationwide had been provided with PrEP service.
PrEP helps to reduce 98 percent of the risk of infecting HIV in the community,Long said.
Vietnam is striving to have about 30 percent or 60,000people in the MSM (men having sex with men) community using PrEP by 2025, andthe rate is hoped to increase to 40 percent by 2030./.
The national action month on HIV/AIDS prevention and control is underway, providing an occasion for Vietnam and partners to look back on anti-HIV/AIDS achievements obtained over the last 30 years.
In Vietnam, since the first infection was detected in 1990 in Ho Chi Minh City, there are 213,008 HIV carriers who are still alive and 107,812 deaths from HIV/AIDS.
The two biggest sponsors of the pre-exposure prophylaxis of HIV infection program was The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. With their support, the program was extended fast, from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi.
An estimated 5,500 people living with HIV in the community have yet to be identified in Ho Chi Minh City, with about 30 percent having high viral load rates that are potentially transmitting the virus to others, according to Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Health Nguyen Huu Hung.
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Under the agreement, VNVC and Sanofi will gradually implement technology transfers to enable domestic production of several key Sanofi vaccines that are widely used in Vietnam. In addition, Sanofi will support VNVC in training human resources and quality management in vaccine research and manufacturing.
Despite the ongoing global circulation and unpredictable developments of SARS-CoV-2, the World Health Organisation (WHO) hasn’t issued new warnings about COVID-19, said the Ministry of Health.
ARV drugs (Photo: VNA) 
