A Chinese condom company will begin making bigger condoms after complaints that they are not big enough for Zimbabwean men.
The complaints came from Zimbabwe's minister for health, David Parirenyatwa, at an HIV/AIDS prevention event in the African country's capital, Harare, last week.
Speaking at the launch of the Zimbabwe Private Sector HIV, AIDS and Wellness board, the minister said that companies should 'come on board in the fight against HIV and start manufacturing drugs together with condoms, which are suitable for the Zimbabwean people'.
Fantastic choice of words, David, well done.
There is a serious side to his argument, though. Zimbabwe has one of the biggest HIV/AIDS problems in the world according to statistics from AVERT, a UK based organisation that works to educate people about the disease.
In 2016 there were 1.3m people living with HIV in Zimbabwe and 30,000 deaths. The minister said that even though condom use was on the rise there had been complaints about the size of the Chinese imports.
He said: "The southern African region has the highest incidence of HIV and we are promoting the use of condoms,
"Youths now have a particular condom that they like, but we don't manufacture them. We import condoms from China and some men complain they are too small."
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He also called upon local Zimbabwean manufacturers to start making condoms that were big enough to fit the bill.
He continued: "If you want to be a big business (private sector), please manufacture condoms (because) you import condoms from China, and some people complain they are too small, so you need to be able to have your own condoms."
Luckily for the well-endowed men of sub-Saharan Africa, the companies have responded to his demands quickly and are planning to put out new products across a range of sizes.
Zhao Chuan, CEO of the brilliantly named Beijing Daxiang and His Friends Technology Company, who manufacture condoms for the African market said: "As to the different demands from customers such as in Zimbabwe, Daxiang, as a Chinese manufacturer, has the ability and the obligation to make a contribution, so we have started to do some surveys on users' data in the region to make preparations for future products with different sizes."
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Condoms are by far and away the most effective form of contraception, and are also the only one to protect against sexually transmitted infections.
If used properly, male condoms are 98% effective according to NHS.uk. Here's hoping that they can get some larger ones out to Zimbabwe so they can start using them properly then.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News