Official concerned about looming condom shortage

Tanzania's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) has said a looming shortage of condoms could adversely affect the country's efforts to tackle the disease. Official government records show that between 8 and 10 percent of Tanzania's 34.5 million people are HIV-positive. The NACP said the nation needed 45 million to 50 million condoms annually, at a cost of about US $14 million, and called for increased donor assistance to replenish supplies. "We are worried that we may experience a crisis next year, because not a single donor has so far pledged to fund importation of condoms," the NACP director, Roland Swai, told Agence France Presse.