Similar to other provinces in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has found it difficult to accurately measure its HIV epidemic control against the 90-90-90 goals. That is, 90-90-90 is a treatment target that has been adopted by Vietnam, that by 2020, 90 percent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) know their HIV status, 90 percent of those who know their status are on sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 90 percent of those on ART have viral suppression. The biggest challenges faced when assessing HIV epidemic control include inaccurate estimated number of people living with HIV, difficulties in identifying real names and contact information of HIV positive cases and an unreliable case reporting system.

On July 12, USAID’s Sustainable HIV Response From Technical Assistance (SHIFT) activity helped the Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Provincial AIDS Center (PAC) to analyze the city’s progress towards HIV epidemic control targets by applying innovative tools that have been developed by USAID and tested and refined in other provinces. As a result, HCMC PAC was able to intensify epidemic monitoring and accelerate performance.

So What? With USAID support, the HCMC PAC is now setting and measuring performance against district-level HIV epidemic control targets and analyzing HIV results for key populations, thereby enhancing its data-driven decision-making to accelerate epidemic control.