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Fear of Aids pushes up condom sales

By KONG SOOK CHIN

SOME condom distributors here attribute a dramatic in crease in sales of their products to the fear of the deadly Aids disease.

"Contraception can only account for a small part of the growth in sales," said the spokesman for a company which is the sole agent for a leading Japanese brand of condom. "It s the fear of Aids that is the real booster."

He said sales of condoms at supermarkets, pharmacies, Chinese medical halls and street-comer stalls he supplied had doubled since Aids cases were first identified here in 1985.

Singapore reported its first death from Aids early this month.

His company also sold to Malaysia and Brunei, where sales were similarly buoyant, mainly because people there were worried about picking up Aids or other infections, he said.

Others involved in selling contraceptives say that the condom is a continual good seller.

A distributor and retailer of a brand of condom that contains a sperm-killing agent say sales of that product took off in the past few months.

The company which is the sole agent for a British brand of condom with spermicide said its overall sales were up and that demand was particularly strong for the spermicidal condom.

"It s moving so fast we have run out of stocks. But we have placed orders for more," the company spokesman said last week.

She said buyers werie attracted by the extra precaution afforded by the spermicide. The transmission of Aids has been linked to infected body fluids, including sperm.

A spokesman for Guardian Pharmacies said recently that sales of condoms at its retail outlets were good and that the condom with spermicide was among the fastest sellers with sales up by 50 per cent.

When fhe Aids virus was first identified here Guardian decided to increase its condom stocks by 20 per cent.

More transsexual prostitutes taking precautions

MORE transsexual prostitutes - but not all of them - are taking measures to protect themselves against Aids, a study here has shown.

A government doctor who is conducting a study of 100 transsexuals said the male prostitutes had become aware of the dangers of contracting the deadly disease after being told by doctors at the Middle Road Hospital.

Dr K. V. Ratnam, a senior registrar of the hospital said last week that many of them were now insisting that their clients, who are men, use condoms.

They have been told to avoid exchanging semen or blood, which have been associated with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Some are doing this. However, Dr Ratnam noted, a few had resisted it, because of what he termed their "fatalistic attitude".

"They felt that since death was inevitable, they were prepared to get Aids and were not prepared to adopt any precautionary measures."

Others had the misconception that their risk of contracting Aids was negligible since they were going to the hospital for regular check-ups.

Dr Ratnam said this belief stemmed from the false notion that Aids was similar to gonorrhoea and syphilis and could be cured with antibiotics.

The prostitutes wer» men between 19 and 55 years old when the study began in 1984. More that half had little or no education. They were selected from a hospital register for the study. The findings of the study - Awareness of Aids Among Transsexual Prostitutes in Singapore - was published in the December 1986 issue of the Singapore Medical Journal.

Working with them Dr Ratnam, who is in his 30s, discovered the first three Aids carriers in Singapore. He said the carriers' condition was unchanged - they have not developed the disease.

Between August 1984 and February 1985, Dr Ratnam interviewed 100 transsexual prostitutes to find out how many knew about Aids.

He found that only 58 out of 100 knew what Aids was. And of these 58, only about half had taken precautions against getting Aids from clients.

But the picture has since changed, Dt Ratnam said. Last year, far more of the prostitutes said they were aware of the disease and taking measures to protect themselves.

He is studying another 20 to 30 transsexual prostitutes, who are younger, to find out how they compare with the original 100.

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This article was written by Roy Tan.

Archive of "Fear of Aids pushes up condom sales", The Straits Times, 19 April 1987

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