Tenders are being sought by the HSE for firms to provide half a million branded condoms. The tender is worth around €50K and is part of efforts to prevent unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
The condoms will be given out for free as part of the HSE National Sexual Health Strategy.
Last year there was an 11% increase in cases of infection in 15 to 24-year-olds with chlamydia making up 50% of these, increasing from 4,677 to 5,200.
It follows a similar tendering process to produce the ”Johnny’s Got You Covered” branded condoms for the HSE’s National Condom Distribution Service. The fresh spend on the condoms comes against the background of rising STI rates in Ireland and rocketing HIV cases.
The 2016 total for new HIV cases was the highest number since records began here and provisional figures for last year showed only a slight dip in spite of the public information campaigns around the dangers of contracting the disease.
The Sexual Health Strategy also records that over one third of women in Ireland have had an experience of a crisis pregnancy which is defined as a pregnancy “that is neither planned or desired and is a personal crisis for the woman.”
