STDs On A Prowl In Vietnam

Shocking survey results come to the fore, as 81% Vietnamese women are found to be carriers of one or the other STDdefine.

Cases of HIVdefine, STDs and AIDS have always been a matter of grave concern in Vietnam as; all 61 provinces of the country have reported HIV cases. Not only this, the country has seen a steady increase in the number of infections every year.

In the year 2007, 211,476 cases of STDdefine infections, were reported amongst the people falling under the age bracket of 15-49. Out of these, 93.9 percent suffered from diseases like - Chlamydia, genital herpesdefine, genital warts and yeast infections. Around 2.6 percent people suffered from gonorrhea, over 2.3 percent from AIDS and nearly 1.2percent from syphilis.

A total of 130,000 Vietnamese are infected every year by STDs. 81% of them being women, as reported by Vietnam's National Dermatology and Venerology Institute. This amounts to a very high number as, the total population of the country is some 87 million only.

The problem of HIV too has reached epidemic magnitudes in the country and is spreading amongst high risk behavior groups of the population. These include – people taking intravenous drugs and those indulging in unsafe sexual practices.

The five provinces of Vietnam: Lai Chau, Quang Tri, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang are receiving financial aid from the Japanese Fund for Poverty Reduction, via the Vietnamese Government to support the Community Action for Preventing HIV/AIDS Project.

The AIDS Division of the Ministry of Health, of the country, in cooperation with the CPFC is mainly responsible for implementing the project which aims at educating the people better, in order to bring a behavioral change, to promote examinations and treatments of STDs, to educate people to use condoms and to improve care of HIV patients.

However, despite all these steps, STDs remain the cause of worry, not only in Vietnam but in majority of the developing countries. Reports show 200 million STDs happening in these nations every year, becoming the leading cause of death in healthy women, in the age bracket of 15-45.