PAI Takes to the Field to Monitor U.S. Policy

Washington, DC - February 27, 2006

Earlier this month, researchers from PAI went to Vietnam to begin documenting the effects of U.S. policies on international family planning and HIV/AIDS programs and services. This research is part of a three-year collaborative NGO effort led by PAI and builds on a similar project that documented the detrimental effects of the Mexico City Policy on access to basic health services and contraception for women and their families. Joining PAI on this first trip was project partner SIECUS.

Vietnam is the only Asian focus country for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – a program instituted by President Bush in 2003 to provide select countries with increased funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care. The 14 other PEPFAR countries are in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

The snapshot of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam differs from other PEPFAR countries because Vietnam is in the early stages of the epidemic. The majority of HIV transmission is due to injecting drug use among young men – and young people under the age of 30 now account for more than 60 percent of reported HIV/AIDS cases. Addressing the prevention, treatment and care needs of injecting drug users and their partners in Vietnam is crucial to prevent further spreading of the epidemic into the general population.

The research team also traveled to neighboring Cambodia to examine the prevention programmes targeting commercial sex workers and their clients that led to the country's successful stabilization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Country case studies for both Vietnam and Cambodia will be released in August 2006.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.