Improving the quality of drug addiction treatment in Vietnam

CDC Vietnam and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) recently held a closing workshop to celebrate the achievements of a six year project, “Capacity building on drug addiction treatment for HIV/AIDS prevention in Vietnam.” The Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Ms. Rena Bitter, noted that in addition to improving the quality of drug addiction treatment and reducing HIV infection and transmission among people who inject drugs, the project also strengthened the bilateral partnership between the Vietnamese and American governments.

Preliminary results indicate that the pilot community-based drug treatment model site in HCMC showed 50% of clients contacted after 12 months, were not using drugs, compared to a 5% recovery under the compulsory O6 center treatment model. The community-based model promotes voluntary treatment that includes detoxification, residential care for one to three months, outpatient non-MMT treatment, methadone treatment, and aftercare counseling. Based on the success of this pilot project, MOLISA plans to implement and fully fund the community-based drug addiction treatment model to approximately 800 sites in 23 provinces by 2020.

PEPFAR Vietnam would like to congratulate Dr. Kevin P. Mulvey, PhD (Substance Abuse Treatment Advisor, SAMHSA) and Asia Nguyen (Health Systems Strengthening Advisor, CDC) for receiving  medals for their contribution to the project and to the Ministry, the highest honor for non-Vietnamese citizens from the Ministry and issued by Decision 1372 signed by the Minister of MOLISA. CDC staff, Hoang Nam Thai, PhD (MMT Program Officer), Huong Nguyen (Program Management Assistant), Le Nguyet Anh (Senior Financial Management Specialist), and Nguyen Thi Minh Tien (MOLISA-CDC Project Coordinator) also received certificates of merit for their contributions to the success of the project and to the Ministry.