Introduction

Introduction

Vlogit - Competition on HIV/AIDS for Young People

Vlogit - Competition on HIV/AIDS for Young People

 

Introduction

© UNICEF Vietnam

“I don’t want my son to die in some hospital. I want him to be here with me.”  Mai, a 56 year-old resident of Cam Pha district, near Viet Nam’s stunning Ha Long Bay, is one of the forgotten people affected by HIV/AIDS. She herself is not carrying the virus, but caring for her HIV-infected son is a devastating emotional burden, made so much harder to bear because of the silence, shame and stigma that surround the disease in Viet Nam.

“I don’t care what people think but I don’t want them to know,” she says. “And I am afraid of what my husband will do if he finds out.”

So far Viet Nam has been spared the rocketing rates of infection that Thailand and Cambodia have suffered over the last decade, but that may be about to change.

Young people are most at risk of the disease and the number of those infected is growing. Official estimates place the number of people living with HIV at 75,180 (Dec 2003).  More than half are between the ages of 20-29 and one in 10 are under 20.

As well as affecting younger people HIV/AIDS is also showing signs of moving into the general Vietnamese population. Although more than half of people infected are still male injecting drug users, HIV/AIDS now threatens those outside the traditional groups with high risk taking behaviour.
 
To date Government efforts have focussed on prevention, with little attention paid to providing care or support for those infected. Many young HIV infected people are left in hospitals or reform schools with little assistance, while others take their chances on the street.

Viet Nam’s young people make up a third of the country’s population, but only sixty per cent know that consistent condom use can protect them from HIV infection. Two out of three girls, aged 15-19, have serious misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, making them vulnerable to infection. For instance, two-thirds of Vietnam’s youth think that HIV can be transmitted through mosquito-bites.

UNICEF Viet Nam is working to overcome these misconceptions by raising awareness and providing basic knowledge for young people on HIV/AIDS; improving child and youth health development; and reducing the incidence of HIV transmission among school-aged children, adolescents from 10 to 18 years old, and women of child-bearing age. 

In addition, UNICEF is supporting the Government’s move to improve the situation for young people infected with HIV/AIDS. Together UNICEF and Viet Nam’s Government are developing a policy on care for young people who are HIV infected, which aims to ease the suffering of families like Mai’s.