Bridging the Gaps: Vietnam
Bridging the Gaps: Vietnam
Program
Bridging the Gaps is alliance of nine international organisations and networks and more than 80 local and regional organisations, working towards the end of the AIDS epidemic among key populations.
Supported by global and regional level work, Bridging the Gaps works with over 80 partner organisations in 15 countries in three regions:
• Sub-Sahara Africa: Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
• South East Asia: Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam.
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine.
In Vietnam, the programme works with, and for the health and human rights of, sex workers and LGBT people, including those living with HIV.
Program details
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh
Objectives
Bridging the Gaps partners in Vietnam work towards ending AIDS among key populations through (1) a strengthened civil society that holds government to account; (2) increased fulfilment of human rights of key populations; and (3) increased SRHR and fewer infections.
Community groups
Sex workers and LGBT people
Background
Vietnam was the first country in Asia to endorse the UNAIDS target of 90-90-90, and it is making concerted plans to reach this target (90% will know their HIV status, 90% will receive ART, and 90% will experience viral suppression) and to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. To do so effectively, sex workers and LGBT people should not be left behind. The HIV epidemic in the country is concentrated in a number of key populations: people who inject drugs (PWID), female sex workers (FWS), and men who have sex with men (MSM). Many of these populations overlap. HIV infection has been identified in all of Vietnam’s 63 provinces and cities and the total known number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Vietnam is 227,154, while there were 85,194 people living with AIDS in 2015. The actual number of infections may be larger, since a significant number of people at-risk and vulnerable to HIV are not tested. It is estimated, though, that at least 80% of those infected know their status. The proportion of female HIV cases among all cases reported has been steadily increasing, from around 10% of infections in the early 1990s to 35% of all infections in 2015. One of the major barriers is the Law on Health Insurance and the decrees and circulars 16, 17, 18, which removed the diagnosis and treatment of HIV from the list of exceptions and exclusions from health insurance coverage. Although coverage is still partial, many key populations are unable to obtain health insurance due to a number of administrative requirements.
Vietnam is a middle-income country of 90.5 million people. There are 227,154 people living with HIV in Vietnam. The HIV prevalence among the general population is low. Although the number of new HIV infections in Vietnam has declined in recent years, a significant number of key populations (40%) were not reached by prevention programmes.
Partners
