Condoms make big news in Andhra

Hyderabad: News, comment, cricket scores and contraception.

Faced with the alarming spread of HIV/AIDS, officials in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday taped a pack of three condoms to the front page of thousands of newspapers delivered to people in 50 villages and four towns in a bid to spread a message of safe sex.

"Earlier we distributed condoms at wine shops and bars, through milk vendors and at pan (tobacco) shops but we met with lukewarm response," says Ashok Kumar, the director of Andhra Pradesh State for AIDS Control Society.

A recent study by the National Aids Control Organisation indicated a 25 to 28 percent increase in the number of HIV infections in Andhra, making it the worst affected state in the country, with nearly one million known cases in 2005.

The latest attempt to rein in HIV was centred on Nizamabad town, 170 km northeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.

Thirty-nine million people are infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and the United Nations' AIDS body says 5.7 million people are living with the virus in India. Activists say the true figure may be far higher.

Conservative attitudes to sex and contraception, a lack of awareness and discrimination all make it hard to tackle the virus in India, especially in rural areas.