U.S. Government supports new HIV/AIDS outpatient clinic in Ho Chi Minh City

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

HO CHI MINH CITY  –  Senior U.S. and Vietnamese officials presided at the opening of an outpatient clinic for people living with HIV/AIDS in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City, thus expanding those critical care and prevention services already provided by U.S. Government programs in the city.

The clinic, funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), will provide a comprehensive package of services, including preventive methods, volunteer counseling and testing, sexually transmitted infection diagnosis, anti-retroviral treatment, and home-based care to people living with HIV/AIDS and others in the district and neighboring areas.

Senior representatives from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, the City's AIDS Committee, the People's Committee of District 9, PEPFAR, and Medecins du Monde (MDM), a French non-governmental humanitarian aid organization, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony. A similar clinic supported by PEPFAR is already in operation in District 6. Opened in 2005, the clinic to date has reached 13,079 individuals with prevention activities, provided voluntary counseling and testing services to 3,991, anti-retroviral treatment services to 824, and care and support services to 1,825 adults and 500 orphans and vulnerable children.

Since 2004, PEPFAR has provided more than US $232 million to support the provision of comprehensive HIV prevention, care and treatment services in Vietnam, and in 2008 the budget reached $88 million. Congress reauthorized PEPFAR for a second five years with a financial commitment of up to $48 billion worldwide to combat global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Back to Vietnam News Room

Go to Vietnam Country Page