VietNamNet Bridge – At a meeting in the central city of Da Nang on November 26 to review the movement  ‘Residents to participate in prevention of HIV/AIDS’, for the period 2008-2012 and to implement a national strategy until 2020, it was reported that Vietnam adds more than 1,000 new cases of HIV every month.
 
Statistics from the Department for AIDS Prevention under the Ministry of Health show that Vietnam currently has more than 200,000 HIV carriers and 59,200 living HIV-infected people. More noticeable, the deadly disease is spreading across the country and being transmitted rapidly to low risk groups.
 
The national strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention until 2020 with vision for 2030 has set a target to reduce HIV transmission to below 0.3 percent by 2020.
 
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed that local governments should actively fight the disease by allocating a certain amount only for action programs. Along with that, each district should step up call for social contributions for the treatment of the disease.

In addition, the estimated cost for HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities over the period 2013-2020 will be nearly VND27 trillion ($1.28 billion), Phuc said.

Vietnam strives to cure 80,000 drug addicts with methadone by 2015, said the Dep. PM.

VietNamNet/SGGP