Ugandan MPs have been inundated with complaints that many condoms on sale in the east African nation are too small, warning the problem is a blow to the fight against AIDS.
Insisting that one size doesn't fit all, MP Tom Aza said Uganda's parliamentary committee for HIV/AIDS said a recent tour of areas worst hit by the virus revealed that some men "have bigger sexual organs and therefore should be considered for bigger condoms."
"When it comes to action, when they're having sexual activity, of course with the pressure, it bursts," he told NTV Uganda.
"Some youth are complaining that the condoms they are being given, some of them are too short, their organs can't fit in them," MP Merard Bitekyerezo also told the channel.
Another committee member, Sarah Netalisile, said the size issue was "exposing our younger boys and girls, and all those users of condoms, to the acquiring of HIV and AIDS."
A condom-vending machine in Chennai
NTV Uganda's report said the MPs would push for better condom supplies and bigger sizes.
It is not the first time the penis size issue has been raised to condom manufacturers.
In 2006, the Indian Council of Medical Research found 60 per cent of men in Mumbai had penises at least 2.4 centimeters (one inch) shorter than international condom sizes, and that for 30 percent of men, the size deficit was five centimeters (two inches).
AIDS is seen as being resurgent in Uganda after years of decline, with as many as 80,000 people dying of the disease every year.
From a peak of 18 percent infected in 1992, Uganda's "ABC" strategy — Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom — helped slash rates to 6.4 per cent in 2005.
But rates have crept back up to 7.2 per cent in 2012. As many as 1.8 million people in the country now live with HIV, and a million children have been orphaned after their parents died of AIDS.
A HIV+ woman arrived at the hospital with symptoms of tuberculosis (TB), receives treatment at the Mildmay Uganda clinic in Kampala, Uganda. (AP file photo)
"When it comes to action, when they're having sexual activity, of course with the pressure, it bursts," he told NTV Uganda.
"Some youth are complaining that the condoms they are being given, some of them are too short, their organs can't fit in them," MP Merard Bitekyerezo also told the channel.
Another committee member, Sarah Netalisile, said the size issue was "exposing our younger boys and girls, and all those users of condoms, to the acquiring of HIV and AIDS."
A condom-vending machine in Chennai
NTV Uganda's report said the MPs would push for better condom supplies and bigger sizes.
It is not the first time the penis size issue has been raised to condom manufacturers.
In 2006, the Indian Council of Medical Research found 60 per cent of men in Mumbai had penises at least 2.4 centimeters (one inch) shorter than international condom sizes, and that for 30 percent of men, the size deficit was five centimeters (two inches).
AIDS is seen as being resurgent in Uganda after years of decline, with as many as 80,000 people dying of the disease every year.
From a peak of 18 percent infected in 1992, Uganda's "ABC" strategy — Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom — helped slash rates to 6.4 per cent in 2005.
But rates have crept back up to 7.2 per cent in 2012. As many as 1.8 million people in the country now live with HIV, and a million children have been orphaned after their parents died of AIDS.
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