The AIDS Foundation looks set to be struck by a tsunami of condoms to assist in HIV prevention programmes, courtesy of the Government's pharmaceutical funding agency Pharmac. Pharmac will pay for the purchase of some 300,000 condoms annually for distribution by the Foundation's health promotion programmes to gay and bi men via workshops, gay venues, safe sex campaigns, and community gatherings like Auckland's Big Gay Out. According to research, the cost of condoms to the public is a barrier to their consistent use, says Gay Men's Health Co-ordinator Douglas Jenkin. "Our experience is that when condoms are free, men are more likely to take them home and use them," he says. Jenkin noted the importance of continuing to focus campaigns on the heart of the epidemic, targeting the gay and bisexual men who made up three-quarters of locally-acquired HIV infections over the last few years. "While in the past few years there have been roughly equal numbers of homosexually and heterosexually acquired HIV diagnoses reported in New Zealand, the vast majority of heterosexual infections, while diagnosed here, have actually occurred overseas."