Joel Ogwang
31 July 2006
Kampala — A SHORTAGE of condoms has hit Mukono district, Harriet Nsubuga, the condom focal person, has said.
"There are 0.5m sexually active people in Mukono but we received only 60,000 condoms from the health ministry for the first half of 2006. This is too little," she said.
Nsubuga said the district has been receiving 500,000 condoms between January and June, adding that low supply threatens to push up the district's HIV/AIDS sero prevalence from the current 6.5%.
She, however, decried inconsistencies in condom use in the district.
"We have found out that couples only use them in the first rounds. Beyond it, people go live," she said in an interview at her office on Wednesday.
A packet of three Life Guard condoms in Mukono costs between sh500 and sh1,000, with the price varying with the distance from the town. Business is booming among private clinics and shops selling them.
Nsubuga said unlike urban dwellers who afford Life Guard, Rough Rider and Protector, people in rural areas only survive on free condoms from the health ministry.
She said the ban on Engabu condoms in 2005 created scarcity, adding that demand for the new non-branded condoms was high.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2006 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
