FHI Focus on Vietnam

Vietnam is still considered to have a concentrated HIV/AIDS epidemic, with almost two-thirds of reported HIV infections occurring to intravenous drug users (IDUs) and most of the rest in sex workers. The prevalence of HIV in all of the sentinel surveillance groups has been increasing steadily since 1996 (in 2000: IDUs 20%, sex workers 4.5%, STD patients 1.2%, military 0.5%, and ANC clients 0.25%), however still remaining below 1% among low risk population. Since the first case of HIV was reported in December 1990, the reported number of HIV-positive persons in Vietnam has increased to over 37,000 as of July 2001, however, the actual number of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs) is much higher.