We gave Mayor Fenty a hard time back in March for being so slow to get going on fighting HIV and AIDS in the District, which has the highest rate of infection of any city in the country. Eventually he did name who appears to be a good choice to run the city's HIV/AIDS agency last month, but a story in today's Washington Post detailing the problems plaguing the District's effort to give away 1 million condoms this year suggests a lack of leadership in HIV/AIDS prevention this year has had serious consequences.

Basically, the condoms the District has been giving away are no good -- at least that's the case for the packaging, which rips and falls apart easily, and has printed expiration dates that are impossible to read. People who came to pick up the condoms earlier this year didn't have confidence that they would work effectively due to the faulty packaging, and at this point, demand for the free condoms is down more than 80 percent.

This news should come as an embarrassment to city officials, and renew calls for the District to get serious about its HIV/AIDS epidemic. If there was some doubt about the reliability of these condoms, new ones should have been ordered immediately, and the current ones should have been thrown out. With one in 20 District residents already infected, this is not an area in which D.C. can afford to cut corners. The Post article suggests the city health department is not taking this problem seriously. Here's how you can contact them to convince them to change their minds.