[Bluegrass Conservative]

On the contrary, it increases the problem.

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[cookcounty]

"On the contrary, it increases the problem. ???"

Yes. Correct. It grants legitimacy to sleeping around. Which means there is more sleeping around. Which means there is more AIDS. The African countries where the emphasis has been on abstainence (ex., Uganda) have been more successful in combating AIDS than countries where the emphasis has been on condoms (ex., SA or Botswana)

[newheart]

During the post-pill and pre-HIV period the condom because of its method failure rate of more than 5% and its user failure rate of 15% was despised as a method of family planning. Yet the singular focus of the anti- AIDS campaign over the last 10 years has been to eulogize the protective qualities of the condom as a shield against the pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). With no vaccine in sight and lacking the moral courage to embrace chastity, contemporary society, by marketing the condom as the solution to the HIV/AIDs pandemic, has put all its eggs in a condom basket. Yet the very experts who promote the condom as a strategic weapon against HIV/AIDs are silent in regard to its failure as a contraceptive. Nor do they highlight the care with which condoms must be 'stored and transported', HIV/AIDS epidemiology experts have established that not only is latex heat, cold, light and pressure sensitive but it is also adversely affected by humidity, ozone, air pollutants and deteriorates over time[1]. With this in mind, keeping a condom in a wallet, purse or car glove-box compartment would appear to violate the stringent storage requirements to maintain it in a good condition. In an experiment to test the effectiveness of condoms against HIV, researchers filled condoms with a liquid containing plastic molecules analogous to the AIDS virus: i.e., they were similar in shape and size. These plastic particles were placed inside a condom with a glass plunger inside the condom. This arrangement was designed to imitate many of the 'environmental' factors operative during intercourse. By testing condoms in an active in-vitro (test tube) system which simulated key physical conditions that influence viral particle leakage an accurate understanding could be obtained of the protective attributes of condoms during actual coitus. The test quantitatively addresses pressure, pH, temperature, surfactant properties(surface tension) and anatomical geometry. Leakage of HIV-sized particles through latex condoms was detectable for as many as 29 out of the 89 condoms tested. This result represents a failure rate of 30%.[2] Highly qualified researchers in the field of latex technology are now calling into question the merit of promoting condoms as a method of stopping the transmission of HIV-AIDS. For instance C.M.Rowland, Ph.D., editor of the journal Rubber Chemistry and Technology, wrote as long ago as 1992 to the Washington Post) stating:

"... Electron micrographs reveal voids (holes) 5 microns in size (50 times larger than the virus), while fracture mechanics analyses, sensitive to the largest flaws present, suggest inherent flaws as large as 50 microns (500 times the size of the virus".)

(http://www.faithandfamily.org.uk/publications/condoms_astep.htm)

[Nathan Zachary]

"On the contrary, it increases the problem."

???

Promotes sexual promiscuity.