Prevent HIV from attacking young people

HIV epidemic is attacking young people, this requires authorities to have solutions to prevent this problem or else the consequences will be unpredictable.

New cases detected increase

Talking about the reality that HIV is attacking young people, Dr. Vuong The Linh, Head of the HIV/AIDS Department, Center for Disease Control (CDC) of Binh Duong province, is worried that Binh Duong has discovered the youngest HIV infection case at only 14 years old, infected through homosexual prostitution.

Illustration photo.

“We don’t know how many sexual partners the children have, whether they are adults or minors. If they are not tested and treated, they will infect F1, F2… and this number will multiply a lot,” he worried.

The reason for the increase in young people, especially students, infected with HIV in the Southern region is due to the difficult-to-control risk of HIV infection among MSM (homosexuals) because this group moves frequently, does not like to use condoms during sex, is difficult to access for counseling, as well as to include in preventive treatment...

In An Giang , the number of HIV infections among MSM accounts for 40% of the total number of cases; compared to 5 years ago, it has increased more than 8 times. Dr. Duong Anh Linh, Deputy Director of CDC An Giang, said that according to surveillance data detected in the period 2020-2023, the HIV epidemic in An Giang tends to increase again and increase rapidly among young men aged 15-30, especially young MSM. However, the province has not yet reached out to schools and industrial parks for propaganda.

This is really a warning bell about the need to change communication intervention strategies and change behavior for young people.

Similarly, Dong Thap has not yet disseminated HIV/AIDS prevention information to high schools and middle schools. Therefore, the knowledge of HIV/AIDS prevention among students here is still very weak, leading to them being easily lured, enticed, and infected with HIV.

This makes HIV prevention officers very worried and anxious, and in the future, there must be recommendations and solutions to promote communication to these subjects.

According to the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, 84.4% of new infections in the first 5 months of the year were male, mainly aged 15-29 (39%) and 30-39 (31%), the main route of transmission was unsafe sex (74.2%).

The main subjects are men who have sex with men (41.1%) and other subjects (35.9%). The results of recent studies also show that transgender women are also one of the groups warned of the risk of HIV infection with the HIV infection rate in Hanoi being 5.8% in 2022, in Ho Chi Minh City from 6.8% in 2004 increasing to 18% in 2016 and 16.5% in 2020.

When doing fieldwork in many southern localities, reporters were informed by officials of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) here that there are 4 major difficulties they are facing in the process of approaching HIV prevention and control propaganda: testing age, propaganda in schools, reaching the MSM community and not paying salaries and allowances to those who provide services in the community. These are the biggest obstacles to delay and slow down the process of ending the pandemic.

Prevent the epidemic from attacking young people

HIV is strongly attacking young people, but there is still a gap in propaganda targeting middle and high school students. If delayed, the consequences will be unpredictable.

Truong Hoang Bao Ngoc, Head of the Executive Board of the LGBT Network (community of people with special genders) in An Giang, said that the network is facing many difficulties because it does not have legal status, is not connected with social enterprises, and it is very difficult to communicate about how to use PrEP to prevent HIV in industrial parks, schools, remote and border areas.

Danh Tung, Head of The Sun CBO in Kien Giang, also said that it is very difficult and almost impossible for businesses to enter schools to promote knowledge about HIV prevention and use of PrEP without the help of the CDC and the Department of Education and Training.

To prevent HIV from attacking young people, in the coming time, CDCs in provinces need to focus on coordinating with the Department of Education and Training, CBO groups, and social enterprises to bring HIV prevention and control propaganda content into schools, especially high schools and middle schools, so that children have knowledge of prevention, bringing health to the future generations of the country.

“The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control as well as the guiding documents of the law have stipulated that MSM are a priority group in the HIV/AIDS prevention and control intervention program and encourage the mobilization of community organizations to participate in implementing infection prevention intervention activities for this group,” said Dr. Thuy.

According to the opinions of many provincial CDCs, the Law on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control stipulates that children under 15 years old must have a guardian to be tested for HIV and admitted for treatment.

But now, there are many children under 15 years old who have contracted the disease of the century, but their parents refuse to take care of them, and these children are not tested for life-prolonging treatment.

According to Dr. Vuong The Linh, if the children do not receive early intervention, their condition will deteriorate rapidly. Therefore, the law needs to be amended to reduce the age limit for HIV testing so that the provincial CDC can guarantee the testing and treatment of children. This needs to be done soon with the participation of many departments, in which the Ministry of Health must advise on policies to amend the law.

HIV has attacked students and there is no more time to wait. It is necessary to have the coordination and participation of the education and health sectors, and the People's Committees of provinces and cities to find solutions to protect children of this age from the disease of the century.

According to the Department of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control, in the first 5 months of 2024, the number of people infected with HIV in Vietnam was mainly concentrated in the Southern region and major cities. In particular, the Southeast and the Mekong Delta region accounted for more than 71% of newly discovered infections.

Of the newly discovered cases in this area, 81% were sexually transmitted, with MSM accounting for 52% and the 15-29 age group accounting for 44.4%, and the 30-39 age group also accounting for a large proportion of 30.2%.

It is estimated that there are currently about 250,000 people living with HIV in the country. Each year, Vietnam detects more than 10,000 new cases of HIV infection. To achieve the goal of ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic by 2030, the rate of HIV infection must be reduced to less than 1,000 cases per year by 2030.