Gov't buys 305m condoms for AIDS prevention
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-09-15 08:50

Buying a condom should be as easy and natural as buying a Chinese cabbage, say AIDS activists, applauding a special government fund to supply 305 million condoms.

Health workers in Hefei, Anhui Province, distribute HIV/AIDS prevention pamphlets before beauty salons and massage parlours where prostitutes are maybe available. Experts say although a large portion of China's infections are  the result of tainted blood donations or transfusions, and later intravenous drug use, most new cases are now the result of unprotected sex. [newsphoto]

A condom producer has said this is the first time the Chinese government has bought condoms for HIV/AIDS prevention with a special allocation.

A total of 305 million condoms, purchased with special funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, has been sent to local Centers of Disease Control across the country, according to the producer.

The condoms will also be delivered to hotels and public entertainment places.

The government signed its first order for condoms with China's largest condom producer, Gaobang Latex Products Manufactory based in south China's tourist city Guilin. The government says the wide use of condoms is an effective way to prevent HIV/AIDS.

So far, 42 hotels in Guilin have received free condoms from the government.

"Before an effective AIDS vaccine comes out, the condom is the most effective and economical way to prevent the disease from spreading through sex," said Tao Ran, a member of the China Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Fund.

"If people could get a condom as conveniently and naturally as buying a Chinese cabbage, the AIDS prevention function of the condom could finally become part of people's daily lives and change their biases," he said. Condoms are still not accepted by the vast majority of people.

Official statistics show that among China's 840,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, 45 percent get infected through drug injection, 25 percent through blood transfusions and 30 percent through unsafe sex, an increasing problem.

Health experts urge 100 percent condom use programs (CUPs). They are underway in Hubei, Yunnan, Jiangsu and other provinces and will be expanded. The slogan is "No Condom, No Sex."

But the issues of how to ensure condom quality and reasonable pricing are also obstacles in the campaign, according to Zhao Pengfei, program officer with the World Health Organization China office.

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