Thursday, January 13, 2005
Condoms and AIDS
The United Nations AIDS
agency (UNAIDS) has published a draft of a study, due out at the end of the month, which shows that condoms are ineffective in protecting against HIV an estimated 10% of the time. The admission from the UN, which is far lower than some studies which have shown larger than 50% failure rates, is a blow to population control activists which have aggressively and misleadingly marketed condoms in the third world as 100% effective.
The Boston Globe, which reviewed the draft report, demonstrates the false marketing of the notorious population control advocacy group, Population Action International (PAI). A September 2002 report, ''Condoms Count,'' published by PAI, said, ''Public health experts around the globe agree that condoms block contact with bodily fluids that can carry the HIV virus and have nearly 100 percent effectiveness when used correctly and consistently.''
The report examined two decades of scientific literature on condoms and UNAIDS says lead author Norman Hearst, "makes a cogent argument that we should be talking about safer sex, not safe sex, with condoms."
The Globe quotes Edward C. Green, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, saying, the one in ten failure rate of condoms protection from AIDS, is "not good enough for a fatal disease." "He said, "The way condoms are marketed in Africa and other developing parts of the world is as if they were 100 percent safe. Condoms have brand names like Shield and Protector that gives the impression that they are 100 percent safe."
agency (UNAIDS) has published a draft of a study, due out at the end of the month, which shows that condoms are ineffective in protecting against HIV an estimated 10% of the time. The admission from the UN, which is far lower than some studies which have shown larger than 50% failure rates, is a blow to population control activists which have aggressively and misleadingly marketed condoms in the third world as 100% effective.
The Boston Globe, which reviewed the draft report, demonstrates the false marketing of the notorious population control advocacy group, Population Action International (PAI). A September 2002 report, ''Condoms Count,'' published by PAI, said, ''Public health experts around the globe agree that condoms block contact with bodily fluids that can carry the HIV virus and have nearly 100 percent effectiveness when used correctly and consistently.''
The report examined two decades of scientific literature on condoms and UNAIDS says lead author Norman Hearst, "makes a cogent argument that we should be talking about safer sex, not safe sex, with condoms."
The Globe quotes Edward C. Green, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, saying, the one in ten failure rate of condoms protection from AIDS, is "not good enough for a fatal disease." "He said, "The way condoms are marketed in Africa and other developing parts of the world is as if they were 100 percent safe. Condoms have brand names like Shield and Protector that gives the impression that they are 100 percent safe."
