Hanoi (VNA)– A workshop on a national campaign aiming to raise public awareness ofHIV/AIDS as a communicable disease which could be prevented and controlled tookplace in Hanoi on August 6.

According to Assoc.Prof., Dr Nguyen Hoang Long, head of the Vietnam Administration for HIV/AIDS Control underthe Ministry of Health, when levels of HIV virus in the blood of patients underAntiretrovaral (ARV) treatment are undetectable, the risk of HIV transmission viasexual activities remains very low or negligible.

Therefore, the “Undetectable=Untransmittable”campaign is built on a new scientific discovery affirming the benefit of ARVtreatment for HIV patients, he added.

It is hoped to erasediscrimination against people living with the virus and encourage them to stickwith the treatment.

However, Long notedthat the finding is only applicable for the prevention of transmission throughsexual activities, not for sharing injection equipment.

The national campaignwill be launched in major localities listed in the US President's EmergencyPlan for AIDS Relief – (PEPFAR), namely Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Nguyen andHanoi in the north and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Long An, Binh Duong, Ho Chi Minh City,Tay Ninh, Tien Giang and Dong Nai in the south.

Currently, Vietnam has230,000 people living with HIV, 20 percent of them in HCM City.

It is alarming thatwhile HIV infections are reduced significantly in high-risk groups such as drugaddicts (from 29-30 percent to 9-10 percent) and sex workers (from 5 percent to3.4 percent), the rate is rising in the group of men having sex with men (from7.4 percent to 11.4 percent), according to 2018 statistics.-VNA