Prudish officials quash exotic approach to safer sex HANOI - The seizure and destruction of a large number of exotic condoms in Ho Chi Minh city has again illustrated how traditional attitudes towards sex are hampering Vietnam's efforts to control the spread of HIV and a rise in teenage pregnancies. According to a report in yesterday's Thanh Nien newspaper, the condoms - fashioned and coloured to resemble animals in the Chinese horoscope - were seized from street traders along with a range of sex toys and flavoured lubricants. The sale of condoms by street vendors is not technically illegal and the head of UNAids in Vietnam, Dr Laurent Zessler, said the seizure was disappointing, as novelty had proved an effective method of promoting condom use in many other countries. "We would like to see condoms for sale in bars and other places young people go, and the National Aids Committee supports that approach," he said. "Unfortunately, other sectors of Vietnam's administration do not." Dr Zessler said the country's two condom factories were still producing well below capacity, despite a shortage and increasing trends towards sex before and outside marriage. The HIV infection rate is expected to peak at 160,000 by year's end, with nearly three quarters of victims aged between 19 and 30. Vietnam has one of the highest abortion rates in the world. Family planning officials have been instructed not to release figures for last year, but in 1998 1.5 million terminations were conducted in state clinics alone, 20 per cent involving girls under 18. By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - April 5, 2000.