ADB steps in HIV/AIDS fight for youngsters

Hai Duong (VNA) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has largely funded a project on HIV/AIDS control among young people in the northern province of Hai Duong, aimed at reducing the infections growth rate to 0.3 percent by 2010.

The 473,296 USD project, to which ADB contributes 443,296 USD while the
remainder comes from the provincial budget, also aims to help the third
worst-hit northern province to stop the spread of the fatal epidemic in the
period beyond 2010.

Education campaigns will be launched among people aged between 14 and 25
years old to help change their behavours, thus reducing their exposures to
the disease, especially among the high-risk group.

The target population will be educated to trend towards voluntary HIV/AIDS
tests and towards the use of condoms as well, especially among the high-risk
group.

The project also aims to increase public awareness against discrimination
against HIV/AIDS carriers and strengthen community support for the patients.

The initial stage of the project, starting from this year, will involve
Hai Duong city and Kinh Mon district, the province's hotbeds. It focuses on
school students and vulnerable and high-risk groups.

Hai Duong is one of the three provinces with record HIV/AIDS positive
rates in the north. The province reported 6,641 HIV carriers, of them 1,068
have developed to full AIDS, including 825 deaths. The pandemic has been
founded in all the province's 12 districts and townships as well as spread
to 80.2 percent of its villages and wards.

HIV carriers are getting younger and younger when 55.6 percent of the
patients are aged between 20 and 29 years old. Men make up 89.4 percent of
the total.-Enditem