HANOI, July 27, 2016 -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced its new, five-year, $26 million project to strengthen and sustain Vietnam’s HIV and AIDS response.

The Sustainable HIV Response From Technical Assistance (SHIFT) Project, implemented by FHI 360 until 2021, will strengthen Vietnam’s human, organizational, and systems capacity to lead the national HIV and AIDS response.

“The project will scale up services along the entire HIV care continuum from diagnosis  to successful treatment in high HIV burden provinces to achieve “90-90-90” HIV case-finding, care, and treatment targets,” said USAID Vietnam Mission Director Michael Greene, who assumed the post last week. “It will also provide demand-driven technical assistance at the national, provincial and local levels to build sustainable HIV/AIDS services and systems.”

There were an estimated 260,000 people living with HIV in Vietnam as of 2016. In recent years, new cases of HIV have declined. In 2014, Vietnam became the the first country in Asia to adopt the 90–90–90 targets set by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), under which: by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90% of people who know their status are on HIV treatment; and 90% of all people on treatment will have undetectable levels of HIV in their body (known as viral suppression).

USAID first supported HIV/AIDS programs in Vietnam in the mid-1990s. In June 2004, HIV/AIDS assistance to Vietnam significantly increased under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Under PEPFAR, USAID works closely with other U.S. government agencies and the Government of Vietnam (GVN) at the national, provincial, and district levels to support the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

Since 2005, the U.S. government through PEPFAR has supported life-saving antiretroviral treatment for almost 57,000 people, and provided care to more than 62,000 adults and children nationwide. In the last year, PEPFAR assistance provided HIV tests to over 375,000 people and methadone replacement therapy to almost 25,000 people.