According to activists and local media, a new law may allow the sale of condoms in Vietnamese guest houses next year. Although condoms themselves are legal in Vietnam, police often cite possession of a condom as evidence in prostitution cases. According to the online newspaper VNExpress, police oppose a pilot project distributing condoms to guest houses in Hanoi's Long Bien district.

The newspaper quoted Ministry of Health official Mguyen Huy Quang as saying a new law passed by the National Assembly, set to take effect Jan. 1, 2007, mandates harm-reduction programs that include distributing condoms to sex workers and providing clean needles to intravenous drug users.

"This is the result of a long process of changing the opinion that loosening management over condoms is the same as accepting prostitution," said Quang.

The program will target Vietnam's thousands of "nha nghi" or "rest houses" which can be rented by the hour. Quang said preventing HIV transmission takes precedence over combating prostitution and drug use, which Vietnam terms "social evils." More than 100,000 thousand Vietnamese are HIV-positive, and more than 10,000 have died of AIDS.

A volunteer for Bright Futures, which runs the pilot program in Long Bien, told VNExpress that owners of the guest houses often dismissed volunteers in the past if they brought condoms. "They are afraid that I am an undercover policeman," he said. In the year since the pilot program began, the volunteer said, some 30 guest houses have begun selling or giving away condoms.

Nevertheless, police in the district have reiterated that condom possession is still grounds for arrest.

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