AIDS Officials in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh have hit on a novel method of promoting safe sex in order to prevent HIV/AIDS. When thousands of residents opened their newspapers this Independence Day they found a taped pack of three condoms on the front page.
"Earlier we distributed condoms at wine shops and bars, through milk vendors and at pan (tobacco) shops but we met with lukewarm response," said Ashok Kumar, the director of Andhra Pradesh State for AIDS Control Society. The papers were sent around to more than 50 villages and two towns in the area.
Andhra is the worst affected state in the country. There were nearly oine million HIV cases in 2005, according to the National Aids Control Organization. A recent study indicated that there was a 25 to 28 percent increase in HIV cases in the state.
The United Nations' AIDS division estimates that there are at least 5.7 million HIV positive people in India.
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