I am very honored to be here today with you to commemorate the 20 years of HIV care and treatment in Viet Nam.
If I should say some reflections of past 20 years from WHO in one or two sentences only, I would say
- In the past 20 years, Viet Nam achieved significant results in increasing coverage of antiretroviral therapy (or ART), improvement of access to the services through decentralization of HIV services and quality of care, and prevention and monitoring of HIV drug resistance.
- WHO has enjoyed this journey with our counterpart at the Ministry of Health.
I am sure that my predecessors and former WHO staff that worked on HIV/AIDS in Viet Nam will agree with me and send you their congratulatory remarks.
We are all committed to end HIV epidemic by 2030 which was adopted by leaders of UN Member States in 2015. In response to this global call, the World Health Assembly at its 69th session in 2016 endorsed the global health sector strategies on HIV to guide actions over the period of 2016 to 2021 towards eliminating HIV/AIDS by 2030.
Earlier this year, WHO released a mid-term progress report of this global strategy. Global consolidated summary were presented as the followings:
- First, the reduction in HIV incidence is far behind the target. HIV mortality has declined but remains too high.
- Second, strong progress towards achieving 90-90-90 targets: gaps in key population programming, in certain countries and regions, including western and central Africa, eastern Europe and some Asian countries, and in retention in care.
We, WHO, appreciate that Viet Nam has made significant progress in achieving the first 90 target. We acknowledge various innovative approached to improve access to testing by community including lay provider and self-testing.
However, Viet Nam still need to do better to increase coverage of ART service to achieve the second 90 target and the goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
Using this opportunity, I would appeal you that Viet Nam should put more emphasis on the following strategic directions among five strategic directions of the Global Health Sector Strategy in order to more forward further in achieving second-90 target and third-90 target. There are “financing for sustainability” and “delivering for equity”
- Viet Nam is going through the transition process from donor supported ART to health insurance funded programme. A well-functioning coordination mechanism between MOH and Viet Nam Social Security will be the key to ensure “financing for sustainability”.
- HIV treatment service is now provided in mainly hospitals. Stigma and discrimination need to be free in health care settings to ensure “delivering for equity”.
- In addition to this, comprehensive care for co-morbidities should be provided to people living with HIV so as them can access to the health services they need.
Before closing, I should acknowledge that achievements we have made so far were from the contribution and dedication of the thousands of community health workers, members of HIV and key population networks. The theme of the World AIDS Day this year is “community make the difference”. To mark the World AIDS Day theme and pay our appreciation to community, we made a short video-clip.
Let me conclude my intervention by showing the video-clip to you.
Thank you!