US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with support from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is hosting a workshop on “Updates and Best Practices in Second Generation HIV/AIDS Surveillance: The Asia Experience” in Ho Chi Minh City from March 1-5.

The meeting, which is the second of its type following the first one in Shanghai, China in 2007, is bringing together surveillance technical staff from government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and US government agencies from 14 participating countries in Asia to provide updates and best practices on key issues related to the conduct and use of HIV/AIDS surveillance data, says a press release by the American Embassy in Vietnam on March 2.

Describing the event, Ajmal Sabawoon, Afghanistan National AIDS Control Programme Manager, said: “This workshop is very important, as it is a platform to share lessons learned, which means I learn from others’ experiences and others can learn from my team as well, and it allows the establishment of a technical network at the regional level which supports monitoring the progress or trend of the epidemics in the region.”
 
This workshop has the advantage of focusing on technical issues that are most pertinent to the low-level and concentrated epidemics in Asia. Nguyen Tran Hien, Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said at the workshop: “With support from PEPFAR and other international organizations, Vietnam has fundamentally carried out second generation HIV/AIDS surveillance work initiated by the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS. However, there is much more to do, particularly in quality control and improvement, in order to guarantee the linkages between surveillance and prevention, and maximise resources to allow effective analysis, planning and efficiency assessment of HIV programmes in the country.”

In Vietnam since 2004, PEPFAR has provided over $400 million to support the delivery of comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and support services.

The number of people having HIV and AIDS deaths decreased by 17% and 33% , respectively, to over 156,800 and over 44,000 by the end of 2009, according to the Vietnam Administration for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control under the Ministry of Health. Among those having HIV, 34,000 were AIDS patients, mainly drug addicts and prostitutes.

(Source: The Vietnam Nation)