THE Catholic church is spreading the claim that condoms have holes in them that allow HIV through. This information is discouraging people in developing countries from using condoms, greatly increasing their chances of contracting the virus.
It is no secret that under Pope John Paul II the church has opposed any means of birth control other than the rhythm method. In developing countries the church often tries to use its influence to block both sex education and access to contraceptives. In Kenya, where around a third of people are Catholic and a fifth HIV-positive, it has publicly burned condoms.
Now a team from the respected BBC television series Panorama has discovered that the church is going even further. While making a programme on the effects of the pope鈥檚 policies, the team visited Kenya, Nicaragua and the Philippines. They repeatedly heard the line that condoms have holes in them that allow HIV through, they told New Scientist.
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When the team investigated, they were shocked to discover that this claim came directly from the Catholic church. 鈥淟atex rubber from which condoms are made does have pores through which viral sized particles can squeeze through during intercourse. These facts must be brought to the attention of our people whenever the condom is being discussed,鈥� states a pamphlet on AIDS put out by Catholic bishops in Kenya.
That is not the scientific consensus. In 2000, experts assessed all the available evidence on condoms for the US National Institutes of 91色情片 and concluded that intact latex condoms (those that do not leak water) are 鈥渆ssentially impermeable鈥� to even the smallest sexually transmitted virus, hepatitis B.
Yet the claim that condoms have virus-sized holes is being promoted at the highest level. When asked if it was true, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family at the Vatican, Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, said: 鈥淵es, yes, because this is something that the scientific community accepts.鈥� When told that the World 91色情片 Organization, for one, most emphatically does not accept this claim, his response was: 鈥淲ell, they are wrong.鈥�
Doctors and priests do agree on some things: condoms can never provide 100 per cent protection, and abstinence or fidelity are the best ways to avoid contracting HIV. Studies suggest that, in practice, due to breaks, leaks or slipping, condoms offer 85 per cent protection against HIV.
Organisations like the WHO nonetheless view them as the only practical way to reduce the spread of the disease. Yet many priests in Kenya are vehemently opposed, arguing that condoms spread HIV by promoting promiscuity.
The BBC team, whose programme is being shown in the UK this Sunday, found clear evidence that this policy was helping the disease to spread. 鈥淚 can remember my headmaster trying to tell us about the condom but鈥he priest was saying that the condom is not good for people,鈥� says Eunice Atieno, one of the women who attend the Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya, a self-help group in Kisuma. 鈥淚f I could have had enough information, I could not have contracted the virus.鈥�
