Hue archdiocese is to expand its HIV/AIDS program by providing practical training to enable Church workers and volunteers to help patients more effectively and promote ways of prevent the disease’s spread.

“Everyone, regardless of religion, has a duty to do something to prevent the spread of HIV and care for people with the virus,” said Father John Baptist Le Quang Quy, deputy chief of Caritas in Hue.

Father Quy, 64, said the archdiocese’ top priority is to provide health care for HIV/AIDS patients and to educate local people in how to help patients integrate into communities and not discriminate against them.

“We plan to train our workers in counseling, visiting patients at their homes, giving them health care and burying the dead,” Father Quy said. The Church will hold courses on these skills every three months, he added.

Local people are also being educated about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent the disease, he noted.

He said for the past several years only three nuns have been taking care of patients with the help of 10 lay volunteers.

Father Quy, pastor of Tri Buu parish, said he held a class on HIV prevention for 20 Catholics at his church on Saturday. Two doctors also taught participants how to look after patients and talked about how people shouldn’t discriminate against them.

The priest said in April Caritas Germany agreed to sponsor the archdiocese’s training plan and provided 150 million dong (US$7,317).

Recent figures reveal that there are 1,300 people living with HIV in Hue province and neighboring Quang Tri province out of a national total of 260,000.

However, Church workers believe the figures locally and nationally are likely to be much higher.

The archdiocese covers the two provinces.