Common Sense and Condoms

Of the new cases of HIV in Victoria 89% involved men most of whom were aged between 20 and 40 years who identified themselves as homosexual or bi-sexual. The number of injecting drug users who were diagnosed with HIV doubled from 5 to 10 cases and the number of women was largely attributed to an increased number of notifications from women who came from high prevalence countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. In the United States of America there is a group of Centers for Disease Control linked with the main Center which is located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In February1987 a conference entitled “Condoms in the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases” was sponsored by the American Social Health Association, Family Health International and the Centers for Disease Control. This was held in Atlanta. On 11 March, 1988 the Atlanta Center for Disease Control issued a summary which included data presented at that conference entitled, “Condoms for Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases”. The following paragraph is take from that summary:

Prevention is the most effective strategy for controlling the spread of infectious diseases. Prevention through avoiding exposure is the best strategy for controlling the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Behaviour that eliminates or reduces the risk of one STD will likely reduce the risk of all STDs. Prevention of one case of STD can result in the prevention of many subsequent cases. Abstinence and sexual intercourse with one mutually faithful uninfected partner are the only totally effective prevention strategies. Proper use of condoms with each act of sexual intercourse can reduce but not eliminate, risk of STD. Individuals likely to become infected or known to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) should be aware that condom use cannot completely eliminate the risk of transmission to themselves or to others.

Comment:  For several years now there has been the intensive commercial enterprise of promoting condoms,  particularly based on the encouragement of the idea that the use of condoms in heterosexual and homosexual activities ensures Safe Sex. During these years the epidemics of HIV/AIDS has continued to spread around the world. It has been pointed out repeatedly that in those cases where this promotion of Safe Sex omits the warning, based on sound scientific evidence, has the effect of promoting sexual promiscuity. This means that those who are already engaged in the lifestyle of sexual relationships with multiple partners will be likely to remain in that lifestyle, and many others will be persuaded to enter into that lifestyle which they would have avoided if the truth was made clear. The truth is that until the educational materials designed to stop the spread of HIV infection states quite simply the message from the scientific experts that, “Abstinence and sexual intercourse with one mutually faithful uninfected partner are the only totally effective prevention strategies”, the epidemic will continue to spread everywhere.

It is not just a matter of a failure to use the condom according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It is not uncommon for testing of every condom in a package to reveal that one or perhaps several of them are defective. Trials of the condom as a contraceptive have shown substantial pregnancy rates, about 5% to 10% in different trials, and higher amongst adolescents and young adults. This can be due to a defect in the condom which permitted the passage of the sperm, and the condom that cannot prevent that has no hope at all of preventing the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases, particularly those due to a virus. Sometimes the condom will even rupture during heterosexual or homosexual intercourse.

If there are any people who believe that human beings, and especially adolescent human beings, are incapable of following that advice they should think again. Of course, some people will at first be irresponsible but the majority of people will immediately pay attention to the truth and more and more will do so as they encounter in their own region a spectacle of a man or a woman or a child or a baby who is dying from HIV/AIDS.

Reference

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, printed and distributed by the Massachusetts Medical Society, 11 March 1998, Vol. 37, No. 9