Hit by a massive scarcity of condoms, the Himachal Pradesh AIDS Control Society has borrowed 5 lakh condoms from the Punjab government for distribution among its regular customers who included truck drivers and college-going students.
The Society has been distributing condoms free among vulnerable sections of society through 150 petrol pumps and 50 integrated counseling and testing centers. 23 voluntary organizations are also involved in the free condom distribution in the state.
The state health minister Rajeev Bindal said there have been no stocks of the condoms in the state from February due to non arrival of its quota from the Central government. “We have temporarily borrowed from Punjab but we will return the stocks once we receive our quota of condoms” he told journalists in Simla.
The state has so far identified 5,198 HIV positive people in the state of whom 1,401 have AIDS.
