S. Africa Rejects Chinese Condoms

A court in South Africa has intervened to prevent the government from purchasing a huge supply of condoms from China for use in the fight against AIDS, a Sept. 16 Relaxnews article said. The court says that the 11 million condoms the government intended to buy from China are inadequate to serve the function of helping prevent HIV transmission because they are too small.

The article drew from a South African newspaper account in reporting that the South African ministry of finance had made a deal with Siquamba Medical for the supply of condoms. Siquamba had plans to purchase the condoms from a company called Phoenurse.

However, a competitor challenged the contract in court, claiming that the Phoenurse condoms would be inferior due to their size. Sekunjalo Investments Corporation argued to the court that the condoms they would supply of the awarded contract would be 20 percent lager.

The court agreed, with the judge also saying that the Phenurse condoms were not large enough and had other manufacturing problems that made them unsuitable. Moreover, the court noted, the World Health Organization had not given approval to the condoms.

The AIDS crisis has hit South Africa particularly hard. The Relaxnews article noted that more than 5 million South Africans are living with HIV / AIDS.

Condom size may play a crucial role in helping prevent the spread of STIs, including HIV, researchers have suggested in a number of papers. The National Institutes of Health published a study in January of 2009 titled "The Association between Penis Size and Sexual Health among Men Who Have Sex with Men," which examined the social implications of various penis sizes and men's attitudes about the issue, with relation to "correct and consistent condom use."

The paper also noted that condom manufacturers tend to mass produce only a limited number of condom sizes for the international market, and this can have a significant impact on whether men use them. Condoms that do not fit properly may be more prone to break, to slip off, or to be so uncomfortable or hard to put on that they cannot fulfill their function.

Moreover, if men avoid condom use because the sizes available to them are not a good fit, they may not develop enough familiarity with them to know how to use a condom if and when they do attempt to practice safer sex.

All of these factors may contribute to the spread of HIV, the researchers suggested. The issue is of particular significance among gays, bisexuals, and men who have sex with men (MSM), researchers noted.