The United States Supports Regional Workshop on HIV/AIDS Surveillance

March 2, 2010

PEPFAR, U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is hosting a workshop on “Updates and Best Practices in Second Generation HIV/AIDS Surveillance: The Asia Experience” in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, March 1-5, 2010. The meeting, which is the second of its type following the first one in Shanghai, China in 2007, is bringing together surveillance technical staff from government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and U.S. Government agencies (CDC, United States Agency for International Development/USAID, and U.S. Department of Defense/DOD) from fourteen participating countries in the Asia region to provide updates and best practices on key issues related to the conduct and use of HIV/AIDS surveillance data.

Describing the event, Dr. Ajmal Sabawoon, Afghanistan National AIDS Control Program Manager, said: “This workshop is very important, as it is a platform to share lessons learned, which means I learn from others’ experiences and others can learn from my team as well, and it allows the establishment of a technical network at the regional level which supports monitoring the progress or trend of the epidemics in the region.”

This workshop has the advantage of focusing on technical issues that are most pertinent to the low-level and concentrated epidemics in Asia. Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tran Hien, Director of the Vietnam National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said at the workshop: “With support from PEPFAR and other international organizations, Vietnam has fundamentally carried out second generation HIV/AIDS surveillance work initiated by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. However, there is much more to do, particularly in quality control and improvement, in order to guarantee the linkages between surveillance and prevention, and maximize resources to allow effective analysis, planning and efficiency assessment of HIV programs in the country.”

In 2003, PEPFAR was launched to combat global HIV/AIDS - the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in history. Through fiscal year 2013, PEPFAR plans to work in partnership with host nations to support treatment for at least 4 million people; prevention of 12 million new infections; and care for 12 million people, including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children. In Vietnam since 2004, PEPFAR has provided over $ 400 million to support the delivery of comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment, and support services.