Vietnam gets its first condom machine

HANOI (Reuters) - Surrounded by the bustle of a tavern in full lunchtime swing, communist Vietnam has seen the launch of its first condom vending machine, a move hailed by anti-AIDS groups as a key step to fighting the disease.


DKT International, a non-government organisation that sells subsidised condoms, local firm EZ Vending and Vietnam's Committee for Population, Family and Children cut the ribbon on a red metal vending box that sells "OK" brand condoms for 500 dong (3 cents).


The machine, which will be installed in the men's bathroom of the Nha Hang Lan Chin "bia hoi" or draught beer hall near the city's graceful French-styled opera house, will offer a more discreet alternative to pharmacies, its sponsors said.


"In the course of the next few months we hope to open up several others in communications hubs like railway stations ... we'd really like to go into karaokes as well," Lin Menuhin, marketing director of DKT, told Reuters.


Doctor Pham Ba Nhat, population committee director, said the machines would help in "limiting the spread of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) and HIV/AIDS".


While Vietnam's HIV/AIDS reported cases of 81,000 are modest versus its 81 million population, Hanoi is getting concerned because the disease has been spreading to pregnant women and young military recruits.


Some 60 percent of the reported Vietnam cases are from injecting drug users. The balance are sex workers and those who combine drug use with the sex trade.


The vending machine project, supported by $10,000 from the World Bank, aims to install 40 more condom dispensers by the end of this year in various locations in Hanoi, Nguyen Trong Hai Hoang, director of EZ Vending said.


Patrons of the tavern sited in a French colonial era building appeared bemused by the launch. Engineer Le Van Dy, 65, stepped up to try the machine and scurried back to his table triumphantly bearing the small, foil wrapped condom emblazoned with "OK".


"I am very surprised and curious to find out how it works, it's very useful thing to have," Dy said. "This trade needs to be kept secret and done fast. It is very awkward to buy the stuff from pharmacies."


"I enjoy having fun and thank God for my good health, I need condoms often," he quipped.