USAID-supported New Policy Improves Condom Quality

Thursday, August 24, 2017

In Vietnam, condoms have been unregulated, so the quality varies considerably. According to two studies conducted in 2014 and 2016 respectively, 5 to 50 per cent of condoms sold in the commercial market did not meet minimum quality standards. With technical assistance from USAID’s Healthy Markets Project, in July 2017, Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MoH) issued Circular 31 in which condoms are featured among the list of Class II goods regulated by the MoH. This policy reform, which will become effective on September 15, will promote condom quality assurance and regulation of condom counterfeiting. So What? The new policy increases the availability of quality condoms, which are critical in prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI).