World Bank Approves $35 Million Grant for Vietnam To Fight HIV/AIDS

The World Bank on Wednesday announced that it has approved a $35 million grant for Vietnam's program to fight HIV/AIDS, Kyodo/Yahoo! News reports. More than 60% of the grant will go toward supporting specific action plans developed in two cities and 18 provinces throughout the country (Kyodo/Yahoo! News, 3/30). The country's national HIV/AIDS strategy aims to reduce HIV prevalence, increase awareness about the disease, and change attitudes and behaviors toward the epidemic among the general population and policy makers, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. "Discrimination is hindering strategies to halt transmission of HIV," Klaus Rohland, director of the World Bank in Vietnam, said in a statement, adding, "We will support the government's efforts to aggressively and carefully create behavioral changes through communication efforts to reduce stigma" (AP/Yahoo! News, 3/30). According to Vietnam's Ministry of Health, approximately 245,000 people in the country were HIV-positive at the end of 2003, but international health experts have said that the number could increase to more than one million by 2010 (Agence France-Presse, 3/30).