During the reception, the Deputy PM asked the UNAIDS to continue assisting Vietnam in directing activities of sponsors, increasing resources for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, working hand in hand with Vietnamese National Assembly units and localities on sustainable financial policies for the fight against HIV/AIDS, and improving coordinating capacity of the committee.

He said he hopes that the UNAIDS would help Vietnamese organisations in the work and ease the discrimination against those living with HIV.

Murphy, for his side, said UNAIDS directs global response to providing care for HIV/AIDS patients in Vietnam, and works together with other organisations to build and launch the national monitoring and evaluation framework on the HIV/AIDS prevention and control programme.

He also applauded Vietnam’s achievements in the effort, saying that the HIV/AIDS epidemics has been controlled below 0.3% with decreases seen in the number of new HIV/AIDS patients, that of those in transition to AIDS period, and that of fatalities by AIDS.

Vietnam is one of the few countries globally to pay HIV treatment costs, including ARV drug via health insurance fund, he noted.

The Southeast Asian nation aims to have 90 percent of people living with HIV to be diagnosed, 90 percent of people diagnosed with HIV to be on antiretroviral treatment, and 90 percent of people on treatment to have an undetectable viral load by 2030.