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An activity against HIV/AIDS held in Hoai Nhon District. Photo T.H |
Raising awareness and changing behavior about the HIV/AIDS prevention have reaped considerable results, creating favorable conditions for HIV/AIDS-infected people to integrate into the community. Vice Director of Binh Dinh HIV/AIDS prevention center Nguyen Thanh Truyen talked more about the issue.
- The campaign is said to be the most successful one among 9 action programs on HIV/AIDS prevention. Could you talk about its results?
Among nine programs, the information-education-communication program for the behavior change was much focused on.
Many activities were strengthened at all levels. Bodies and organisations actively participated in the program. The education and communication focused on 86 communes where the HIV/AIDS transmission rate is very high.
The local people’s awareness about HIV, law on HIV/AIDS prevention was considerably raised, helping HIV/AIDS patients integrate into the community easier.
- There will be a high-risk HIV/AIDS transmission if the communication is not promoted…
Binh Dinh has 629 HIV-infected people with 36 newly found cases until Sep.30, including 277 deaths. Annually, each year saw about 40-60 HIV-infected cases. Many will believe this is a low-risk figure, but the potential risk may break out if there is no active intervention.
The risk of HIV transmission through unsafe sexual intercourse is now increasing. Many people who temporarily live in a place often have unsafe sexual intercourse without basic knowledge of HIV transmission.
Also, statistics showed that more than 50% of HIV-infected people are in the age of 20-29, which is also a risk for the fast HIV transmission in the community.
- You said that over 50% of HIV-infected people were in the working age. Binh Dinh is now attracting a large number of laborers everywhere while they haven’t been paid attention to in the program. What do you think about this?
Actually, the campaign has been implemented to help laborers in industrial zones access to the information about HIV/AIDS prevention. The activities, however, were not held frequently because most enterprise owners didn’t want their employees to spend time on such activities.
We will plan to mobilize the participation of enterprises in the coming time.
- One of the biggest barriers in the HIV/AIDS prevention is the discrimination. This means that the communication for HIV/AIDS prevention has been strengthened to raise each person’s awareness. Do you think so?
Many people don’t know much about HIV/AIDS. They are afraid of its transmission; therefore, HIV-infected people have been isolated from the community.
The anti-discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients is one of top priorities in our program. It is also banned in the newly-promulgated law on HIV/AIDS prevention.
The discrimination against HIV/AIDS prevention is still common even though it has reduced to some extent. The HIV transmission has been believed to relate to social evils such as drug addiction and prostitution. We have to, therefore, strengthen the communication, creating conditions for al HIV-infected people to take part in HIV/AIDS prevention activities to reduce the discrimination.
Also, the communication will be focused on each person, helping them know how to prevent the HIV transmission and share with HIV-infected people.
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