Children living with HIV received gifts from charity organizations.

Vietnam will have around 3,750 children, who are younger than 15 years old, living with HIV by 2012 because there are many more pregnant women infected with HIV, said an official from the Health Ministry.

The Chief of the Agency for Preventing and Combating HIV/AIDS, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long said, at a conference on HIV/AIDS on February 24, that the number of children younger than 15 years old living with HIV is on the rise because of the increase of pregnant women with HIV.

Long said by 2012, there will be 5,000 pregnant women living with HIV. To prevent the increase of kids with HIV/AIDS, Vietnam will have to expand the program to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to children.

At present, around 40% of pregnant women living with HIV are treated by anti-virus medicines or other methods.

In the northwestern region, HIV is rising very quickly in all of high-risk groups: drug addicts, prostitutes, pimps, and homosexuals.

According to the Health Ministry, there were 138,221 HIV carriers and 30,335 AIDS patients by January 20, 2009 and 41,903 HIV/AIDS carriers had died by that day.

L. Ha