At the meeting, held by the AIDS Control Committee of HCM City, Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of HCM City People's Committee, said that the city would continue promoting its AIDS control programme, encouraging people from all walks of life, civic organisations and businesses to actively take part in AIDS control activities.

To combat the disease, in recent years, the city has promoted AIDS control activities and provided more funding. It has implemented a large-scale programme on care and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients, including medical treatment with ARV.

The city has also successfully carried out a programme to prevent the HIV virus from being transmitted from the mother to the child, reducing the rate from 30 percent to below 5 percent.

By the end of September 2006, HCM City had detected more than 38,000 HIV positive cases , of which 18,000 had developed fully blown AIDS and nearly 6,000 had died.