WASHINGTON (AP) -- Officials in Washington, D.C., have launched a citywide effort to promote the use of female condoms, in hopes making them available can help stop the spread of HIV in that city.

The District of Columbia has one of the highest infection rates in the country. To encourage the use of female condoms, community groups are handing out 500,000 of the condoms and doing demonstrations on how to properly use them.

CVS is selling them in all its District of Columbia drugstores though sales are slow so far. That makes Washington the only place where people can get them outside a health clinic or community group.

And city officials have begun a website and put posters on 460 buses, about a third of the city's fleet.

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