ICEHA in the News

International Center for Equal Healthcare Access Expands its Reach in Vietnam

New York, July 8, 2004 – The recent announcement by the US government to make Vietnam the 15th country eligible to apply for PEPFAR funding has come as a surprise to many. Vietnam’s overall national HIV prevalence rate is still less than 1%, but according to the US government, HIV in Vietnam is on the brink of an explosion, growing at a much faster pace than in India or China.

“The HIV epidemic in Vietnam is still mainly concentrated in high risk groups,” said Dr. Marie Charles, founder and president of the International Center for Equal Healthcare Access (ICEHA), “but if the HIV epidemic reaches Vietnam’s general population, as recent data suggest is happening, Vietnam’s epidemic could easily become one of the largest in Southeast Asia.”

ICEHA is a NY-based non profit organization of physicians and nurses who volunteer technical assistance on HIV care and Infectious Diseases in developing countries. ICEHA has been working in Vietnam since early 2002 when Dr. Charles was invited into the country by the national health authorities and by Highland Education Development Organization (HEDO), an indigenous Vietnamese NGO. Through the recent expansion of ICEHA’s presence from one into three provinces, ICEHA has the opportunity to build the HIV expertise amongst healthcare providers responsible for a population of approximately 2 million people.

Leading ICEHA into Vietnam, Dr. Charles coordinates clinical training programs during which western physicians provide clinical assistance in order to build local HIV prevention and treatment capacity. “If Vietnam follows the example of Brazil,” said Dr. Charles, “there is significant hope that the nation will be able to stem the epidemic.” Brazil was able to halve its HIV prevalence rate from 1.2 % in 1997 to 0.6% in 2002. Its success was aided by the fact that the country acted very early on in the epidemic. However, Brazil’s success was also due in part to the fact that it built up its public healthcare system to ensure that healthcare providers were equipped to deliver HIV prevention messages as well as understand complicated treatment regimens – something that is strongly lacking in Vietnam.

According to Dr. Kenneth H. Mayer, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Brown University Medical School, “Unless one can be assured that healthcare providers will administer the drugs properly and monitor the patients adequately while reinforcing prevention messages, making antiretroviral therapy available could create new problems, such as unnecessary drug toxicity and the spread of drug-resistant viral strains.”

Every trained healthcare provider is able to provide care to 250 - 300 HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART). In addition to preparing the local physicians for the arrival of ART, ICEHA’s programs address the issue of stigma amongst healthcare workers and reinforce HIV prevention messages. “You have really given me the tools that I can apply in my clinic tomorrow,” commented a Vietnamese physician at a recent training session in Hoa Binh Province. “You make me look at my patients in a very different way. It is not about treating the disease, but about treating a patient.”

ICEHA’s recent program expansion in Vietnam was initiated in May 2004 in collaboration with TREAT Asia, a clinical network founded by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), one of the leading non-profit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, AIDS prevention, treatment education, and the advocacy of sound AIDS-related public policy.

“amfAR, through its Treat Asia network, recognizes the vital role ICEHA will play in treatment scale-up,” says Kevin Frost, the architect of Treat Asia. “ICEHA understands the need for local physicians to take the lead not only in administering antiretrovirals, but in educating the Vietnamese about the risks of HIV transmission, advocating for patients’ rights, and empowering people living with HIV with the tools they will need to live longer, healthier lives.”