Health sector promotes international cooperation

The HIV/AIDS pandemic remains a major challenge to public health globally. Despite significant progress in prevention and treatment, the goal of ending the pandemic by 2030 requires stronger and more sustained efforts. With that determination, the Quang Ninh Health sector has identified promoting international cooperation in HIV/AIDS prevention as an essential requirement, contributing to improving the quality of care and protecting people's health.

Quang Ninh Health Sector works with the EpiC/FHI 360 Project delegation on supporting HIV treatment and global health security. Photo: CDC Quang Ninh

Quang Ninh, with its characteristics as a border province, with an international border gate, seaport and a major tourist center of the country, is always considered a location with potential complex epidemiological factors. Bustling trade and large population movements pose difficult problems for disease control, especially HIV/AIDS.

According to the latest report of the Department of Health on the results of the implementation of the National Strategy to End the AIDS Epidemic, up to now, the cumulative number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the whole province is more than 12,000 people. Of which, the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS who are still alive and managed in the area is 5,862 people; 385 people have moved to other provinces, lost contact, or worked far away; the rest have died. Notably, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has appeared in most localities in the province.

According to medical experts, the pattern of HIV infection in Quang Ninh is clearly changing and becoming more complex. If in the past, infection was mainly through blood in the group of drug addicts, now the trend of transmission through sex is dominant, especially the increase in the group of men who have sex with men (MSM) and young people.

Clearly identifying the local situation and continuing to do a good job in HIV/AIDS prevention, in recent years, the Quang Ninh Health sector has always attached importance to expanding cooperation with international organizations to update new techniques, treatment regimens and the most effective community intervention models from around the world.

During the 2021-2025 period, the provincial health sector has proactively coordinated with prestigious international organizations to implement many programs to support HIV/AIDS pandemic prevention in the area. A typical example is the cooperation between the provincial health sector and FHI 360 (USA) through the EpiC Project. During the 2022-2024 period, this project has supported Quang Ninh with a sustainable solution to respond to the HIV epidemic through a centralized technical support mechanism.

On November 18, the Quang Ninh Health sector had an in-depth working session with the EpiC/FHI 360 Project delegation on supporting HIV treatment and global health security. At the meeting, international experts directly shared experiences and techniques, helping local health facilities optimize HIV/AIDS treatment processes. The provincial health sector also proactively coordinated with the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS to organize an online meeting to support cervical cancer screening and hepatitis C treatment for people living with HIV.

Quang Ninh CDC organized a workshop to deploy activities of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS 2025.

Not only stopping at medical treatment, legal aspects and capacity building are also focused. Through cooperation programs, training courses on capacity building and legal understanding in drug and HIV/AIDS prevention and control have been organized regularly. Notably, CDC Quang Ninh cooperated with the working group of VUSTA Project (Global Fund for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project) to implement solutions to increase community access, improve the quality of intervention for at-risk groups; organize training on laws related to drug and HIV/AIDS prevention and control for grassroots forces...

Thanks to the synchronous implementation of domestic programs and the expansion of international cooperation, Quang Ninh's HIV/AIDS prevention work has achieved many positive results. Up to now, many professional goals have been achieved and exceeded, such as: Nearly 90% of infected people know their infection status; 88.72% of infected people receive ARV treatment; 99.1% of people on ARV treatment have viral load below the suppression threshold; 99.46% of HIV-infected people participate in health insurance...

Nguyen Chien

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/nganh-y-te-day-manh-hop-tac-quoc-te-3386593.html