Hand in glove with A.I.D.S.

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 35

Hand in glove with A.I.D.S.

By Marty Summons of AAP NZPA Melbourne The A.LD.S. scare, both in Australia and the United States, has given Melbourne-based Pacific Dunlop, Ltd, an added fillip to its latex and medical products division. Pacific’s managing director, Mr John Gough, said there had been a "huge difference” in sales of Ansell International’s medical gloves for medical and dental use because of the increased incidence and reports of the debilitating viral disease in Australia two years ago. “We can’t keep up with the demand and will sell about 750 M single gloves this financial year,” Mr Gough said. “We expect this will expand over the next two years to 1000 M single gloves,” he said. Mr Gough said the developing trend in Australia, Europe and, in particular, the United States was for nurses and dentists carrying out routine examinations to use the latex gloves.

And, at between 4c and 5c a glove, Ansell is in line to post comfortable sales figures for the full year.

Ansell is the world leader in medical glove manufacture and supply and holds 30 per cent of the United States market against larger corporations, including Johnson and Johnson.

The latest development is the green-colored, pep-permint-scented DentaGlove, to be released here within the next three months.

It has been designed especially for dental use and is expected to be widely accepted by practitioners and patients. Mr Gough said the incidence of A.I.D.S. had not affected Ansell’s sales of condoms in Australia, although world sales had increased by between 15 to 20 per cent.