Ethiopia to dump millions of low quality condoms
By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
June 26, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) –Health officials in Ethiopia on Saturday said the country will dump nearly 70 million imported condoms after Agency of Standards found the condoms of extremely poor quality.
“The condoms have not met the elasticity test that was conducted with our experts. It has showed a tendency to rupture easily so the quality control department has rejected the condoms” Kebede Worku, Ethiopia’s state minister for health, told the Associated press.
The condoms were ordered from an Indian company at a cost of $ 2 million which was secured from international donors to support the county’s battle to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
“We don’t provide sub- standard services to our population. We don’t negotiate on quality because this is not a political issue” Kebede said.
Sudan Tribune has learnt that Ethiopia’s Pharmaceuticals Fund and Supply Agency which bought the condoms have lodged a complaint seeking a refund and a ban on the Indian supplier.
“The company that provided the defected condoms will be held accountable under our laws” he added.
According to an expert at Ethiopia’s food and medicine control agency, dozens of condoms were subjected to a random pressure test were found to have holes and were leaky.
“The holes are not wide enough to be seen with a naked eye, but they are wide enough to pass liquids through so we have rejected them” said Bikila Bayisa, deputy director of the agency.
Speaking to Sudan Tribune Dr. Abraham Lukas James a researcher on HIV/ AIDS underscores a need to pre-shipment and post-shipment tests to avoid purchasing defected condoms.
James says the concerned government body should assure the qualities of condoms before they are put to market as users may not know which brand is safe or not.
“Condoms are promoted as an effective way of protecting HIV and other STDs” James said adding “such problems [defected condoms] would seriously affect the confidence of the population in using condoms”
He noted a need to restore the confidence of the people when such hitches encounter.
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the East African nation has been seeing a fast decline in recent years as people are eventually developing a safe-sex culture however the spreading has continued across the country.
AIDS Resource Center in Ethiopia, estimates that the country’s current HIV positive population is over 600,000.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) says around 1.2 million Ethiopians have AIDS.
(ST)