RI gives 1.44 million condoms to Cambodia

RI gives 1.44 million condoms to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (Reuter): Indonesia donated 1.44 million condoms to
Cambodia's Ministry of Health yesterday to help stem the spread
of AIDS in the Southeast Asian nation.

Indonesian Ambassador Taufik Soedarbo, handing over the 1.44
million prophylactics, said his government was alarmed at the
spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which leads to
the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

He said Jakarta believed the "modest donation" could help the
government achieve its aim of ensuring 90 percent awareness of
prevention measures in a country where HIV is believed to be
spreading faster than anywhere else on earth.

The United Nations' World Health Organization estimated in
June that 100,000 to 150,000 of Cambodia's 10.5 million people
carried HIV and 1,500 to 2,000 had AIDS.

It had put the number of HIV carriers at 50,000 to 90,000 last
November, just three months after estimating the number with the
virus at 30,000.

Experts say sexual contact is the main cause of transmission,
while Health Minister Chhea Thang said at yesterday's ceremony:
"We need about five million condoms a year in Cambodia."

In Indonesia, activists are often reluctant to promote the use
of condoms as a way to check the spread of AIDS, because many
religious leaders have frowned upon it. Some Moslem leaders
argued that promoting condoms amounted to "condoning
promiscuity".

The Indonesian Council of Ulemas, for instance, has said the
council neither accepts nor rejects the use of condoms either in
the national family planning program or in the prevention of
AIDS. Instead, it supports the use of condoms in certain cases.
For instance, a man who is infected with HIV is obliged to wear a
condom when having sex with his wife.