The UK government’s Department for International Development (DfID) on June 5 approved £18 million (US$30 million) funding to support Vietnam in its efforts to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS from 2009 to 2012.

The program builds on the achievements of earlier DfID and World Bank projects, and aims to support a scaling up of harm-reduction activities by targeting vulnerable and high-risk groups by distributing clean syringes, making condoms freely available, providing methadone treatment, as well as diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and the implementation of Vietnam’s National Strategy on HIV/AIDS on Prevention and Control till 2010 with a vision to 2020.

“Helping the Vietnamese government to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS has been one of DfID’s priorities in Vietnam. The program will support the Government’s targets to keep the HIV prevalence rate among intravenous drug users below 20 percent and among commercial sex workers below three percent. £18 million invested in this program will prevent an estimated 28,000 new infections and consequently create $97 million (£59 million) net savings on direct treatment costs,” Fiona Louise Lappin, head of DfID Vietnam, said.

DfID had previously provided $31 million (£17.5 million) for the “Preventing HIV in Vietnam” program since 2003, which ends this month.

The program focuses on containing HIV transmission from high-risk groups – intravenous drug users and commercial sex workers – to the general population.

The program has contributed to some ground-breaking achievements: introduction and rapid increase in access to free needles and syringes (from zero in 2004 to 15 million in 2008); distribution of 230 million condoms, start-up of a long resisted methadone treatment program and de-stigmatisation of people living with HIV/AIDS.