Vietnam has allocated 150 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 9.4 million U.S. dollars) for preventing and fighting against HIV/AIDS this year, up 82.9 percent over last year, according to local newspaper People on Friday.

The country will also use some 290 billion VND (18.1 million dollars) mobilized from international donors for anti-HIV/AIDS activities in 2007. In the year, 10,000-120,000 Vietnamese AIDS patients are expected to have access to anti-retroviral medicines, all children having HIV will undergo treatment, and 75 HIV testing centers nationwide will be upgraded.

By late last year, there were some 300,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam. The country plans to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection rate among its 83-million population to below 0.3 percent by 2010, and keep it unchanged after 2020.

Source: Xinhua