Mobile workers are one of the groups at high risk of HIV/AIDS, experts said during a meeting about HIV education programmes for large infrastructure projects in HCM City.

Intravenous drug users and sex workers are most at risk of contracting HIV, but migrant workers and managers, who usually work away from home for long periods at major construction projects, are also at high risk of catching the virus, according to the project manager of non-government organisation, PACT, Nguyen Anh Thuan, adding local residents would also be impacted.

Viet Nam's rapid economic development and growth had resulted in increased levels of mobility within the country and large populations of migrant workers, experts said after the meeting.

Viet Nam should prioritise HIV prevention programmes for workers and residents near major infrastructure projects because migrant workers on the sites lived far from their families and had sexual needs met by sex workers, Thuan said.

"Contractors should be responsible to enhance awareness about HIV/AIDS among the workers," Thuan stressed.

Helpful tool kit

The World Bank is sponsoring PACT to do a baseline study for US$40,000 to adapt an information toolkit to help prevent HIV in migrant workers at these sites.

The study is an initial step to limit HIV infection among workers, sex workers and the community at big infrastructure projects, following World Bank's recent decision to recommend that such projects worth over $10 million should include a HIV/AIDS prevention toolkit in their budget.

Thuan said the toolkit was conducted and piloted at large-scale construction projects in China, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea.

PACT Viet Nam aims to conduct the baseline survey at some construction projects in Ca Mau Province to adapt the existing toolkit entitled The Road to Good Health and pilot the draft toolkit so that people can study more about HIV and how to protect themselves.

"Most building contractors pay attention to workers' safety but don't pay attention to risks they face from HIV," Thuan said.

Once the six-chapter toolkit has been adapted to Viet Nam's needs, it will be applied to other construction projects around the country next year.

Hoang Anh Dung, a representative from Transport Sector of World Bank Viet Nam, said the province was chosen for studying and piloting the HIV prevention toolkit in Viet Nam because there were many workers from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta who went there to work.

There were six bridge construction packages there and up to 70 workers on each site, Dung said.

Agreement reached

In 2006, six development agencies including the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, African Development Bank, the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (now Japan International Co-operation Agency JICA) and KfW Development Bank made an agreement to recommend that infrastructure construction contractors conduct HIV/AIDS awareness programme to reduce risks of HIV transmission among contractors' personnel and the local community.

Besides discussing the draft toolkit during the meeting, representatives from World Bank, ministry of transport and project management unit 1 (PMU1), as well as Ca Mau Province also mentioned there could be some difficulties to carry out the baseline survey during the construction timeline.

Dung said, not many contractors liked to spend much time informing their workers about HIV prevention because they wanted the job to be finished on time.

--Viet Nam News/ANN