ACCRA, Over 5.9 million pieces of condoms have been sold since the "Stop AIDS, Love Life" campaign was launched in February this year. This represents about 74 per cent increase over the 3.4 million condoms sold over the same period last year, Mr Kofi Amekudzi, AIDS Programme Manager of the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF), said in an interview with the GNA in Accra.

The first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, launched the campaign, which is aimed at increasing the risk perception of people and condom usage by increasing social support. "The increase in sales tells us that people are now realising that AIDS is real and there is the need for protection more than in times past," Mr Amekudzi said.

This achievement, he said, is as a result of the collaborative effort of the GSMF, Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the Ministries of Health and Communications.

Mr Amekudzi said the collaboration has brought to bear the technical knowledge and the rich experience of the Information Service Department on the rural campaigns.

The Ministry of Health has been helpful in the supply of current information and statistics on AIDS while Johns Hopkins is involved in the production of advertisements, among other varied roles.

Mr Amekudzi explained that though the foundation preaches the use of condoms, abstinence and mutual faithfulness between partners, it is only the use of the condom that could be monitored. The other two would be tracked by a demographic health survey later.

Mr Amekudzi said GSMF is exploring the non-traditional outlets of distribution such as supermarkets and barbering saloons, among other places, to reach out to more people. He said the packaging of condoms is being seriously looked at in order to make it more attractive.

He denied that condoms supplied by the GSMF are inferior because they are cheap saying "our products are subsidised to make them affordable for the ordinary man or women to purchase". The foundation supplies brands like Panther and Champion.