PRESS RELEASE

June 1, 2006

USCDC Signs HIV/AIDS Cooperative Agreement With Vietnam's NIHE

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded the Vietnamese Ministry of Health the project Partnering with the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) to Enhance Public Health Capacity for HIV Prevention and Care Activities in Vietnam, as part of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

A cooperative agreement on the project was signed on June 1, 2006 by John Boardman, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy-Hanoi, and Nguyen Tran Hien, Director, NIHE.

This new cooperative agreement between the U.S. CDC and NIHE will continue and strengthen the eight years of cooperation between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments in HIV prevention and care in Vietnam. The project supports the National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS in Vietnam over five years with the following objectives: First, to develop national HIV laboratory capacity to support HIV testing and establish a national quality assurance and quality control system for HIV laboratories. Second, to strengthen the national HIV/AIDS surveillance system for routine HIV/AIDS surveillance, including drug resistance surveillance, surveillance for new HIV infections or incidence surveillance, surveillance in sentinel groups, integrated behavioral and biologic surveillance, and AIDS indicator survey. Third, to support the Ministry of Health in implementing the national action plan for surveillance and monitoring and evaluation to ensure HIV/AIDS program effectiveness and quality and to assist in policy development and program planning.

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