Vietnamese HIV/AIDS Training and Treatment Program

In May, 2004, WWO sent a team of American experts in pediatric HIV/AIDS from Columbia University to Viet Nam to hold a training program at the Tam Binh orphanage. 26 Vietnamese physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals from throughout Viet Nam attended the training, which featured lectures by the American trainers and group discussions on subjects ranging from the microbiology of HIV to the history of clinic AIDS treatment in the US and in Viet Nam. This was the first time training in Viet Nam has focused on pediatric HIV/AIDS.

According to UNAIDS estimates, 220,000 people in Viet Nam are living with HIV, and yet only 1,000 people were receiving treatment as of June 2004.

In conjunction with this training, WWO began providing medical treatment to the 25 HIV-infected orphans living at Tam Binh. Working with UNICEF's procurement program, WWO has become the first organization to import pediatric three-drug ARV treatment into Viet Nam. In addition to providing medication, our project director Dr. Nguyen Trong Hau continues to work with the staff of Tam Binh to ensure that necessary monitoring labs are performed on a regular basis, and the children receive the care they need. Dr. Philip LaRussa and the medical professionals at Columbia’s pediatric HIV clinic continue to review each patient’s chart quarterly, and update treatment recommendations.

WWO is committed to providing long-term medical care to the 25 HIV-positive orphans at Tam Binh. Currently, it costs over fifty-thousand dollars to treat 25 children for one year, but WWO is working with the US Agency for International Development to secure government support for the project in the form of funding and direct supply of medication.

The US medical team will return to Vietnam in the Fall of 2005 to conduct another training session with more physicians in Northern Viet Nam. Following the success of the program at Tam Binh, Dr. Hau is investigating potential sites for a second treatment program elsewhere in the country. We are also developing plans to provide comprehensive psycho-social services as well as medical care, adapting WWO’s successful early intervention model from Bulgaria and supporting classroom education.