CALI, Colombia (CNN) -- It's not every day that a giant condom is paraded through the streets, which is why revelers at an annual Christmas fair had to look twice when an inflated prophylactic snaked through downtown Cali, Colombia's third-largest city.

It was not just any old piece of rubber. The Guinness Book of World Records has recognized the condom -- which stretched more than one kilometer (one-half mile) and weighed about 1,350 kilograms (3,000 pounds) -- as the largest ever made.

Its construction was the idea of doctors specializing in treating sexually transmitted diseases at Santiago de Cali University and workers from drug rehabilitation programs.

They pointed to a recent health ministry report that found that 170,000 Colombians have tested positive for HIV, a virus that leads to AIDS.

The number of those afflicted could increase to 190,000 by 2000 unless condom use increases, according to the report.

"The idea behind the giant condom is to show people that AIDS is here, that it is alive, that it is a huge problem -- a problem that is much bigger than this condom," a project organizer said.

The condom took two months to build at a cost of $13,000 and was paid for by the university and a condom manufacturer.

As a safeguard, dozens of police escorted the giant birth control device as it was paraded through the streets.

It seemed to make an impression on many who saw it, including one young girl, who commented, "I have learned that the condom is used by the man so that the woman does not have children and so that the man does not give her a disease."

Colombia is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, and the church maintains a strong stance against contraception.