Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Monday December 28, 1998
Pat Reber, Associated Press Writer
Johannesburg's Business Day newspaper reported Monday that South Africa did not adequately test imported condoms and had to send at least 4 million faulty condoms back to an Indian manufacturer earlier this year.
"There have been times when condom testing was not as good as what it should have been," said Dr. David Coetzee, head of the Department of Health's HIV and AIDS control program. But Coetzee said he knew of only 1 million condoms that were recalled.
He said the Health Department adopted World Health Organization standards for testing condoms in August.
Until then, government-distributed condoms were subjected to random testing, but rigorous lot-by-lot testing of every batch was not done, Coetzee said. "In the future, every single batch distributed to South Africa will be tested and that will be the major difference," Coetzee said.
He said he hoped the report would not damage efforts to educate the public about how condom use can prevent the spread of HIV infections.
South Africa has one of the fastest-growing rates of HIV infection in the world. Since 1992, the Health Department has distributed for free about 95 percent of the condoms used in the country.
For next year, the department has ordered 140 million condoms, which are being subjected to rigorous testing, Coetzee said. There are about 12 million adult males in South Africa.
South Africa is a late comer to the AIDS epidemic after decades of isolation during apartheid. But it is fast catching up with its neighbors. An estimated 3.2 million South Africans are HIV positive, or about 12 to 14 percent of adults.
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