Deputy PM urges greater efforts for UN 90-90-90 Goals

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has called on the entire society to join hands for the United Nations 90-90-90 Goals by 2020.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam speaks at the meeting. Photo: NDO

Dam made the call during a meeting held in the northern province of Hai Duong on November 26 in response to the National Action Month for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control (November 10 – December 10) and World AIDS Day (December 1).

The UN 90-90-90 Goals mean that by 2020, 90 percent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral (ARV) therapy while 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.

In his speech, Dam said HIV/AIDS epidemics appeared for the first time in the world 35 years ago and was discovered in Vietnam 25 years ago with 250,000 infection cases and over 90,000 deaths reported.

Thanks to efforts of departments, agencies and mass organisations, HIV/AIDS infections and deaths have kept falling in recent years. Apart from international support, the Vietnamese government will allocate more budget for the fight against the epidemics and issue health insurance of HIV patients, Dam noted.

Vietnam is the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to commit to the UN 90-90-90 Goals, he said, adding that awareness campaigns should be enhanced to make it easier for HIV carriers to be treated with ARV and protect them from discrimination.

According to the Health Ministry’s Vietnam Authority of HIV/AIDS Control, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS reported that there are more than 36.7 million living HIV carriers now and around 35 million have died of the disease.

2017 is the 10th consecutive year that Vietnam has seen decreases in the number of newly-discovered HIV infections, the number of transmissions to full-blown AIDS and the number of AIDS-caused deaths. Each year, about 10,000 new HIV infection cases are discovered in the country, mostly via sex.

After the meeting, students and members of armed forces joined a parade to call on mass organisations and people to join the fight against HIV/AIDS.

On the occasion, the Health Ministry’s Fund in Support of HIV/AISD Patients granted 200,000 VND to each of 60 children under treatment in the provincial Centre for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control.

Representatives from organisations and businesses also offered gifts to local children living with HIV.

(Source: VNA)