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Lovemore Meya Herald Correspondent
Higher and tertiary institutions should be well-supplied with condoms if the country is to close the tap to new HIV infections, the National Aids Council (NAC) has said.

NAC’s operations director, Mr Raymond Yekeye, said this at the launch of the Icon Gold condom by the Aids Healthcare Foundation over the weekend in Harare.

“The launch of Icon Gold provides us with additional choices for our young people and we know that condoms are tried and tested in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and HIV,” said Mr Yekeye.

“One of the challenges we have had is the issue of availability and the attractiveness of the condoms. There is a general feeling that condoms are not attractive although readily available.

“However, the package of Icon Gold is quite attractive and it is something that young people can want to be identified with. We are hoping to distribute targeting mainly our tertiary institutions so that they are readily available to the young people to increase their uptake,” he said.

“As of now, we do not have numbers, but we are going to make sure that as and when they are required, we will replenish. After a distribution cycle, we will be able to calculate what the demand is and estimate how many condoms are required on a monthly basis, quarterly and annually in tertiary institutions.”

He said Zimbabwe was distributing around 100 million condoms annually both in the public and private sectors.