Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Reuters NewMedia - December 17, 2004
The Ministry withdrew Engabu, a local popular brand that was emitting a bad smell, after the World Health Organization found its quality deteriorated.
"We are going to face six months of limited supply," said Vastha Kibirige, a condom coordinator with the Health Ministry.
"We fear that in the meantime some people might have unprotected sex."
The National Drug Authority (NDA) tried to allay fears of a shortage during the festive season, a period over which it said demand for condoms doubles.
"I can show you documentary evidence to prove that over 80 million condoms will be arriving in the country soon on the order of the government. Actually 10 million are already here," said Deus Mubangizi, NDA's acting executive secretary.
The United Nations says 25 million of the 38 million people worldwide with AIDS are in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS killed up to 2.2 million Africans last year, while some 3 million contracted the HIV virus.
Uganda was once seen as the epicenter of the virus but the country has carried out an energetic information campaign that has helped bring down HIV infection rates to about 6 percent from more than 30 percent in the early 1990s.
Still, the east African country has an estimated 1.2 million people who carry the HIV virus.
Among its hardest hit are populations in remote war-torn northern Uganda, where Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have waged a brutal insurgency for 18 years against the government of President Yoweri Museveni.
The Ugandan government in June began distributing free ARVs to about 3,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers.
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