USAID Helps Vietnam’s Largest Province Achieve Major Milestone Towards HIV Epidemic Control

Speeches Shim

Friday, November 24, 2017

In 2015, PEPFAR and USAID committed to support Nghe An, Vietnam’s largest province by area, to achieve ambitious UNAIDS targets for HIV epidemic control. UNAID’s 90-90-90 goals state that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV (PLHIV) 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. On November 17, USAID’s Sustainable HIV Response from Technical Assistance (SHIFT) activity and Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee convened key stakeholders to evaluate progress towards these targets.  The review found that within 24 months, implementers and local partners had increased the number of PLHIV who are aware of their status by 26% (from 4,186 to 5,277), increased the number of PLHIV on treatment by 29% (from 3,299 to 4,241), and that 92% of those on treatment were virally suppressed and thus much less likely to infect others (3,919 of 4,241).  So What? As USAID works with the Vietnamese government to sustainably address HIV epidemic control, results like these reveal that the strategies HIV stakeholders are pursuing in Nghe An are working and that the province has dramatically improved its control of the HIV epidemic.