HIV/Aids: Catholic Church in Condom Palaver

The Catholic Church has been accused of warning people in African, Asian and other countries with high rates of HIV infection that condoms do not protect against the transmission of the virus, the claims come just a day after a report revealed that a young person is now infected with HIV every 14 seconds.

According to BBC report, "cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in four continents of the church have been quoted as saying HIV can pass through tiny holes in condoms but latest warnings were made in a Panorama programme called 'Sex and the Holy City' by one of the Vatican's most senior cardinals Alfonso Lopez Trujillo who allegedly suggests that the AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon and could pass through net formed by the condom.

Trujillo, President of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, called on governments to urge people not to use condoms.

His words "These margins of uncertainty, should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do, with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."

In swift reaction to this claim, the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned the comments and warned the Vatican to desist from putting lives at risk with such utterances.

A spokeswoman to WHO was quoted as saying that" Statements like this are quite dangerous"We are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people and currently affects around 42 million. "There is so much evidence to show that condoms don't let sexually transmitted infections like HIV through. "Anyone who says otherwise is just wrong."

Also reacting, Catherine Hankins, Chief Scientific Advisor to UNAIDS,, argued that the statements by Catholic Church are totally incorrect saying that Latex condoms are impermeable. She added that latex condoms are not only good but can perfectly prevent HIV transmission from one person to another during sex.

According to her, " "It is very unfortunate to have this type of misinformation being broadcast, "It is a concern. From a technical point of view, the statements are totally incorrect. "Latex condoms are impermeable. They do prevent HIV transmission."

Meanwhile, several anti - AIDS campaigns have also condemned the call by the Vatican arguing that condoms are straightforward and effective way of preventing HIV transmission and to suggest otherwise is dangerous.

However, the claim by the Catholic Church is already having effect on the condom distribution activities of some anti HIV/AIDS programmes.

Efforts to get a reaction from Catholic Secretariat in Lagos were unsuccessful as at press time.

The Wall Street Journal had a good piece on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106607692368410200,00.html?mod=opinion

I'm not sure if that's free registration required or subscription only.

Money quote:
"While the BBC and condom advocates would suggest one type of behavior change, namely correct and consistent condom usage, the Catholic Church proposes another type of behavior change: abstinence, monogamy and fidelity. Here again, science weighs in on the side of religion.

Botswana and Zimbabwe are ranked among the top countries world-wide for HIV prevalence. Yet both countries are condom-friendly and make condoms readily available. In 1991, Uganda also had an HIV infection rate of more than 20%. By 2001, however, the rate was only 6%.

A 2002 Harvard study conducted by anthropologist Edward C. Green and Vinand Nantulya, an infectious-disease specialist, revealed the cause of the discrepancies between Uganda's HIV infection rate and those of other heavily infected countries. Uganda had begun a program focusing on abstinence and fidelity instead of condoms. While the rate of HIV infection in every other country continued to escalate, Uganda's fell dramatically. (Lest there be any concern over the researchers' religious zeal, Mr. Green describes himself as a "flaming liberal" who does not attend church.)"

Many leading health experts have warned against depending on condoms for protection against AIDS and other STDs. Here’s a sampling of their comments:

"You just can’t tell people it’s all right to do whatever you want as long as you wear a condom. It (AIDS) is just too dangerous a disease to say that."
Quote from: ¾ Dr. Harold Jaffee, chief of epidemiology, National Centers for Disease Control

"Simply put, condoms fail. And condoms fail at a rate unacceptable for me as a physician to endorse them as a strategy to be promoted as meaningful AIDS protection."
Quote from: ¾ Dr. Robert Renfield, chief of retro-viral research, Walter Reed Army Institute

"Relying on condoms for ‘protection’ can mean lifelong disease, suffering, and even death for you or for someone you love."
Quote from: ¾ Dr. Andre Lafrance, Canadian physician and researcher

"Saying that the use of condoms is ‘safe sex’ is in fact playing Russian roulette. A lot of people will die in this dangerous game."
Quote from: ¾ Dr. Teresa Crenshaw, member of the U.S. Presidential AIDS Commission and past president of the American Association of Sex Educators

Holes in Condoms . . .

STDs are very tiny organisms, minuscule in size compared to sperm. These super-small viruses can get through a hole in a condom much more easily than sperm can. For example, HIV (the AIDS-causing virus) is so small that two million of the disease-causing agents could crowd on the period at the end of a sentence.

In 1993 the University of Texas analyzed the results of 11 different studies that had tracked the effectiveness of condoms to prevent transmission of the AIDS virus. The average condom failure rate in the 11 studies for preventing transmission of the AIDS virus was 31%.

One reason condoms fail in preventing the transfer of AIDS is that latex condoms have tiny intrinsic holes called "voids." Sperm is larger than the holes, but the AIDS virus is 50 times smaller than these tiny holes which makes it easy for the virus to pass through [Source: Dr. C. M. Roland, editor of Rubber Chemistry and Technology]. To give you an idea of how easy it would be for the virus to pass through these holes, just imagine a ping pong ball going through a basketball hoop.

Girls Still Get Pregnant!

Did you know that you can use a condom and still get pregnant? A variety of studies have found that condoms have an "annual failure rate" of 10% to 36% when it comes to preventing pregnancy.

Can you imagine the consequences for a couple when their condom fails? It happens all the time! One of the studies found that among teenagers, the condom failure rate regarding pregnancy was 36%! On average, that means that one out of every three teenage couples using condoms will become pregnant each year.

Are You ready to catch a sexually transmitted diseases?

Condoms provide considerably less protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than they do against pregnancy.

That's because a girl can get pregnant only at ovulation time (that's two to three days each month) but STDs can pass from partner to partner at any time of the month.

STDs are frequently passed through "skin to skin" contact even when condoms are used. This can happen because the bacterial or viral germs that cause many serious STDs (such as human papillomavirus, chlamydia, herpes, and syphilis) do not infect just one place on your body. They may infect anywhere in the male or female genital areas.

So, even if the virus or bacteria isn't passed through tears or holes in the condom itself, you can still get diseases because condoms don't cover or protect all areas of the genital region. That means condoms don't prevent many of the STD infections that take place during sexual contact.

(Editors note: STD is A.K.A. - VD or venereal disease. The first person to email me the root meaning/derivation of the word "venereal" wins a FREE copy of the video by Pam Stenzel called Sex Has A Price Tag. Send me your mailing address if you submit an answer so I can send you the video if you win.)

**Facts to Remember . . .

The United States' Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 56 million Americans have an incurable STD. That means 1 in 5 Americans are infected!

12 million people get a new STD each year!

33,000 people get a new STD every day and 22,000 of them are 15 to 24 years old!

25% of High School students will be infected with an STD before graduation!

[**Source: Alan Guttmacher Institute, New York and Center for Disease Control, Atlanta]

Adapted from: Lickona, T. and J. Sex, Love, and You. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1994.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.