http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1058966,00.html
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids Steve Bradshaw
Thursday October 9, 2003 The GuardianThe Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the HIV virus.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue.
The church's claims are revealed in a BBC1 Panorama programme, Sex and the Holy City, to be broadcast on Sunday. The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told the programme: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom.
"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."
The WHO has condemned the Vatican's views, saying: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."
The organisation says "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%. There may be breakage or slippage of condoms - but not, the WHO says, holes through which the virus can pass .
Scientific research by a group including the US National Institutes of Health and the WHO found "intact condoms... are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD pathogens including the smallest sexually transmitted virus... condoms provide a highly effective barrier to transmission of particles of similar size to those of the smallest STD viruses".
The Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo said: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
The church opposes any kind of contraception because it claims it breaks the link between sex and procreation - a position Pope John Paul II has fought to defend.
In Kenya - where an estimated 20% of people have the HIV virus - the church condemns condoms for promoting promiscuity and repeats the claim about permeability. The archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki, said: "Aids... has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
Sex and the Holy City includes a Catholic nun advising her HIV-infected choirmaster against using condoms with his wife because "the virus can pass through".
In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids."
Panorama found the claims about permeable condoms repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America.
· Steve Bradshaw is a correspondent with Panorama. Sex and the Holy City will be broadcast on BBC1 at 10.15pm on Sunday.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
Edited to add:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1059905,00.html
We have faith in condoms
Friday October 10, 2003
The Guardian Contrary to the Vatican's view (Condoms don't stop Aids, October 9), condoms do prevent the transmission of HIV. Christian Aid agrees with the WHO that consistent and correct condom use cuts the risk of infection by 90%. Some 13,000 people become HIV-positive every day, over 90% of them in developing countries. More than half are under 24 and in many countries over 30% of boys and girls are sexually active before 15. Condoms are a straightforward and effective way of preventing HIV transmission. To suggest otherwise is dangerous.Comprehensive HIV prevention programmes, which include information about condoms, have not been found to increase promiscuity. In contrast, countries like Sierra Leone, where condoms have not been readily available, have seen a significant rise in HIV prevalence. Christian Aid is calling upon the church worldwide to actively support comprehensive sex education that includes education about correct condom use. Churches have extensive community networks, and these must be used to prevent infection and save lives.
Dr Rachel Baggaley
Christian Aid· While prevention rates at 85% and 90% sound good, for something as serious as Aids and HIV, those rates are still much too low and present a dangerous gamble - rates are comparable to the odds in Russian roulette. It appears the Vatican and scripture have it right: abstinence is the best choice.
Dan Kempker
Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
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Ignored One.