Many hotels are refusing to stock condoms given out as part of an AIDS awareness initiative, it has emerged.

In accordance with the Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control issued in March, Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning instructed district governments to send out condoms to be distributed at venues such as hotels and entertainment spots. But as many as 40 percent of the condoms sent out in Pudong New Area have been refused or not offered to guests, according to an investigation by a newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the Shanghai Inter Continental Hotel explained: "We never provide or sell condoms in our hotel. We must comply with a uniform standard set by our company to arrange the layout of rooms in the hotel. Our hotel hasn't received any circular released by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning."

For some hotels and entertainment venues, condoms are considered too private and personal an issue. A woman, who asked not to be named, working at the guest room department of the five-star Okura Garden Hotel Shanghai said: "We only provide life necessities in our hotels, and condoms are something relating to privacy.

"If customers need them, they can bring condoms themselves, and it is very convenient to buy them at supermarkets and drugstores throughout the city." Other hotels find providing condoms a waste of money. "Most of our customers come as singles on a business trip. They do not really need condoms. Those who come as a couple will bring condoms with them - they will not use the condoms provided for free. So, we have no plan to put condoms in the rooms of our hotel. It's nothing but a waste of money," said a staff member at 88 Xintiandi Shanghai, a hotel.

Fan Jincheng, deputy director of the Social Development Bureau of Pudong New Area, admitted there was a problem with hotels stocking condoms.

He said: "Among the 200 hotels above the level of three stars, only 10 to 20 of them have agreed to install the condom vending machines sent by the government, and more than half of the hotels refuse to accept free condoms." The biggest obstruction comes from people's way of thinking, he added.

In January 2006, the Chinese Government, along with WHO and UNAIDS (The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS), estimated that 650,000 people were living with HIV in China, including about 75,000 AIDS patients.

"We are making committed efforts to promulgate the use of condoms in order to cut the infectious source of AIDS. Besides, we try every means to promote citizens' awareness of AIDS, which is an active response to the spirit of the Regulation on AIDS Prevention and Control issued this March," explained an official with Shanghai Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning, who asked not to be named.

"I have also heard that the promulgation work of getting condoms into high class hotels has encountered some obstacles, but we have the confidence to better our work and we believe that through further promotion, we can see bright prospects in terms of preventing AIDS."

(China Daily October 20, 2006)