The HIV prevalence rate among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Vietnam has increased in recent years, especially in urban areas. To address this, USAID’s Sustainable HIV Response from Technical Assistance activity partnered with provincial health authorities and community-based organizations to combine online and in-person HIV outreach and testing services to engage hard-to-reach MSMs.

On March 28, USAID began advertising HIV information and testing services on Blued, a popular MSM dating app in Vietnam. Within two weeks, 124 MSM completed an online questionnaire to assess their risk of contracting HIV and 93% of them decided to be tested for HIV. More than fifty percent of MSM who took the online questionnaire reported engaging in unsafe sex and had no previous HIV testing history.

So What? Combining online and in-person HIV efforts increases access to HIV testing for high risk MSM that were previously hard to reach. As USAID works with Vietnam to achieve its HIV/AIDS response targets, this is an important step to control the HIV epidemic among an extremely high-risk population.