Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved a project on improving public capacity in controlling HIV in the southern region that will receive $2.1 million from a non-refundable aid provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project will last for five years in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City with a focus on bettering services on HIV/AIDS prevention and control on the community-based organizations (CBO) basis. It will specify measures on HIV prevention to men who have sex with men (MSM) and people living with HIV in the city. The project aims to contribute to the implementation of the “90-90-90 goals” in which the government expects that 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression by 2020. Accordingly, the project will provide services to more than 48,000 MSM and sent more than 43,000 people to HIV testing stations in the city through CBOs in the next five years. The project will also indirectly benefit more than 38,000 sex workers and drug users in the city which tops the country for the ratio of people living with HIV. (Vanban.chinhphu.vn Feb 15, Lao Dong – Labor Feb 14, Tin Tuc – News Feb 14)
