MENLO PARK, Calif. - On Friday, KaiserNetwork.org published a report stating many hospitals, health care clinics and centers in the Solomon Islands are experiencing a shortage of condom supplies.
Officials of the medical facilities located in the South Pacific Ocean, just east of Papua, New Guinea, have issued a plea to its government for help fearing an outbreak of HIV and AIDS infections in the sexual active region.
According to The Solomon Star News, quoted an International Planned Parenthood Federation spokesperson as stating that the next supply is not expected until June 2009. The IPPF is one of the chief suppliers of condoms in the Solomon Islands region and said that some facilities ran out of condoms as early as October 2008.
George Pitakoe, program officer of the Solomon Islands Planned Parenthood Assoc. said the medical facilities simply cannot wait that long.
"We might see it as a good thing people are taking precautions but the question is what happens if our stocks don't arrive as expected," he said.
A nurse no longer residing in the region, and who requested to remain anonymous, said the problem is worse than if the medical facilities were to run out of certain medicines.
"We cannot live without condoms for too long," she said. "If we do, who knows? A lot of people might not be using them and our HIV/AIDS cases in the country might increase."
In an earlier interview with The Solomon Star, the Director of the Pharmacy Wale Tobata reported that 2.5 million [local currency] was allocated for new supplies, but it is still uncertain if condoms were included in the order.
No donation process has been put in place at time of press.
