(VOVworld) – A national scientific conference on HIV/AIDS opened in Hanoi on Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said the event was part of activities to mark Vietnam’s national month of action on HIV prevention, contributing to the UN 90-90-90 targets. He said that Vietnam was one of 40 countries to attend the first global conference on HIV/AIDS in 1994 and it was the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to respond to the UN 90-90-90 targets 20 years later: “It’s not easy to achieve the UN goal of eliminating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We must have faith and act together to achieve this goal even before 2020.”

Vietnam’s 90-90-90 targets are: 90% of people living with HIV should know their HIV status; 90% of people who know their status should be on HIV treatment; and 90% of all people on treatment will have undetectable levels of HIV in their body (known as viral suppression).