Data show that since the first HIV case was reported in the country in December 1990, there have been 215,661 people living with this virus and 103,616 deaths from HIV/AIDS.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Quoc Cuong said thanks to the efforts by the Government and strong support from international organisations, by the end of September, Vietnam had provided antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for more than 142,000 HIV patients, rising 270 folds from 2005. Over 10,000 new patients receive this type of treatment every year.
The programme’s effectiveness has been maintained over years, he noted, adding that in the first nine months of this year, 96% of the patients using ARV therapy had their viral load within the suppression level and nearly 95% had the load within the undetectable level.
Vietnam is the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to have worked to achieve the 90-90-90 targets (90% of people living with HIV know their status; of whom 90% are under ARV treatment; of whom 90% are virally suppressed) in 2020. It began the efforts in October 2014 with a view to ending the AIDS pandemic in 2030. So far, it has obtained the second target, which is 90% of the people diagnosed with HIV are under ARV treatment.
Applauding the ARV therapy expansion in Vietnam, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative in the country Kidong Park said Vietnam is one of the few countries in the Asia-Pacific to have a considerable expansion of ARV coverage. It has also been creative in helping HIV carriers access treatment.
