The increased cost is forcing Argentine lovers to cut back on the use of contraceptives.
According to a report published by the news agency Reuters, pharmacists and manufacturers have said that the sales of sales of condoms and birth control pills have dropped because of a biting recession, a deep devaluation of the currency and high inflation.
“The devaluation of the peso is killing me,” actor and comic Guillermo Aquino says in one viral video which shows a young man apologizing to a potential partner and saying that there is just one condom remaining with him by the end of the year. “I love you, it’s not you, it’s the socio-economic situation,” adds the actor in the video.
But a bleak reality is revealed underlying in the comedy.
It is expected that the Argentine economy, the second largest in South America, will shrink by 2.6 per cent in the current year as the country struggles to control its hyper inflation rate of over 50 per cent. Its currency – the peso, has shred about two thirds of its value compared to the dollar in the last one and half years which has significantly dented imports and consumption.
There has been a plummeting drop in the sale of cars, wines and meat in the country because of reducing income of citizens of the country. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a drop of 8 per cent year on year in the sale of condoms in the country, according to estimates of industry sources. And in recent months, there has been a drop of about 25 per cent in condom and contraceptive sales because of a worsening of the economic crisis.
Condom manufacturers imports most of the materials or the finished condoms and therefore there is an immediate impact on the price because of the weakness of the currency. Felipe Kopelowicz, president of Kopelco, manufacturer of Tulipán and Gentleman condom brands said that the price has escalated by about 36 per cent since the beginning of the year.
And according to pharmacists, there has been a drop of 6 per cent in the sales of birth control pill sales so far this year and by about 20 per cent in recent months.
Thousands of women were going off the pill because of the price hike, Isabel Reinoso, president of the Argentina Pharmaceutical Confederation, told Reuters. “It’s around 144,000 women who have stopped taking contraceptives each month,” she said.
The degree of sexually transmitted diseases could aggravate because of the issue, said public health experts.
“When you’re just thinking about getting by day to day, health is often relegated and sexual health, which is still taboo and has little support, even more so,” said Mar Lucas, program director at Fundación Huésped, an Argentine non-profit organization fighting HIV, reported Reuters.
She said that there are very few who know about the free distribution of condoms in public hospitals by the government. “We know they are rarely used, misused and used inconsistently. And so we keep having a lot of sexually transmitted infections,” added Lucas.
There were no comments available from Argentina’s Ministry of Health.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
According to a report published by the news agency Reuters, pharmacists and manufacturers have said that the sales of sales of condoms and birth control pills have dropped because of a biting recession, a deep devaluation of the currency and high inflation.
“The devaluation of the peso is killing me,” actor and comic Guillermo Aquino says in one viral video which shows a young man apologizing to a potential partner and saying that there is just one condom remaining with him by the end of the year. “I love you, it’s not you, it’s the socio-economic situation,” adds the actor in the video.
But a bleak reality is revealed underlying in the comedy.
It is expected that the Argentine economy, the second largest in South America, will shrink by 2.6 per cent in the current year as the country struggles to control its hyper inflation rate of over 50 per cent. Its currency – the peso, has shred about two thirds of its value compared to the dollar in the last one and half years which has significantly dented imports and consumption.
There has been a plummeting drop in the sale of cars, wines and meat in the country because of reducing income of citizens of the country. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a drop of 8 per cent year on year in the sale of condoms in the country, according to estimates of industry sources. And in recent months, there has been a drop of about 25 per cent in condom and contraceptive sales because of a worsening of the economic crisis.
Condom manufacturers imports most of the materials or the finished condoms and therefore there is an immediate impact on the price because of the weakness of the currency. Felipe Kopelowicz, president of Kopelco, manufacturer of Tulipán and Gentleman condom brands said that the price has escalated by about 36 per cent since the beginning of the year.
And according to pharmacists, there has been a drop of 6 per cent in the sales of birth control pill sales so far this year and by about 20 per cent in recent months.
Thousands of women were going off the pill because of the price hike, Isabel Reinoso, president of the Argentina Pharmaceutical Confederation, told Reuters. “It’s around 144,000 women who have stopped taking contraceptives each month,” she said.
The degree of sexually transmitted diseases could aggravate because of the issue, said public health experts.
“When you’re just thinking about getting by day to day, health is often relegated and sexual health, which is still taboo and has little support, even more so,” said Mar Lucas, program director at Fundación Huésped, an Argentine non-profit organization fighting HIV, reported Reuters.
She said that there are very few who know about the free distribution of condoms in public hospitals by the government. “We know they are rarely used, misused and used inconsistently. And so we keep having a lot of sexually transmitted infections,” added Lucas.
There were no comments available from Argentina’s Ministry of Health.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
