Condoms: A Secret Weapon in Short Supply

"Women in Uganda have been hanging their condoms out to dry. They're doing it not because they're ignorant, but because they're desperate. Long acquainted with the lifesaving virtues of latex, many can't imagine taking the risk of unprotected sex. And since condoms are hard to come by in southern Africa, they're forced to experiment with recycling. This is the sort of ingenuity the world can live without, and the sort of indignity Africans shouldn't have to suffer. The condom is a dependable and cheap shield against AIDS, as Uganda's successful condom campaign makes plain. With billboard blitzes and presidential proclamations, the country turned its citizens into condom consumers. Uganda has thus escaped the worst of Africa's AIDS onslaught, lighting the way for the continent.

"But what's the point of stirring demand if there's no supply? The question needs asking, because news from the UNAIDS Program shows that condoms are least available in the countries that need them most. In 1999, UNAIDS says, 724 million condoms were distributed in sub-Saharan Africa -- an average of 4.6 condoms per man. That skimpy supply can't possibly cover the demand.

"Encouraging condom use in Africa is tricky in the best of circumstances. It entails untying a knot of beliefs and assumptions that have held societies together for generations. But if there's any hope of persuading beleaguered people that their lives can be saved by a little balloon, the thing itself will have to be readily available. UNAIDS says it isn't. The world needs billions more condoms than it produces.

"This is another problem that can be solved with money, if only the people who have it will give it. The UN Population Fund says the amount needed for AIDS-fighting condoms is rising above $1 billion. But international funding for condoms has been dropping for several years -- from $68 million in 1996 to just $40 million annually in 1999 and 2000.

"This may be the ultimate in penny-wise, pound-foolish thinking, and the world's wealthy nations should call a halt to it now. No one should die for want of a condom worth a few cents."

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