AFRO-NETS> Anti-condom Campaign Threatens Public Health

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

Anti-condom Campaign Threatens Public Health
--------------------------------------------

Misrepresenting the scientific evidence and contradicting mainstream 
public health prevention experts, social conservatives assert that 
condoms do not protect against most sexually transmitted diseases 
(STDs).

This is stated by Heather Boonstra of The Alan Guttmacher Institute 
(AGI) in the publication "Public Health Advocates Say Campaign to 
Disparage Condoms Threatens STD Prevention Efforts," to be found at:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/gr060101.html

* Congressional conservatives have misinterpreted findings from a Na-
tional Institutes of Health (NIH) workshop report to proclaim that 
condoms are ineffective. The NIH report actually found that condoms 
prevent transmission of HIV and gonorrhea, and a "strong probability 
of condom effectiveness" against six other STDs.
 
* The Bush Administration stated officially in December that the pro-
motion of "abstinence for the unmarried and fidelity for those who 
are married" is the primary STD prevention strategy for the United 
States.

Boonstra argues that this effort to devalue condom use is part of a 
crusade to undermine the notion of "safer sex" and exclusively pro-
mote abstinence outside of marriage as official government policy. 
Undermining confidence in condom effectiveness threatens people's 
health and lives because sex among unmarried people is common world-
wide. According to previous AGI research in 14 countries, relatively 
high proportions of never-married teenagers and young adults-
particularly young men-have had sex.

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