Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Condoms and STDs: Fact Sheet for Public Health Personnel

http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm

Quote:

"Latex condoms can only protect against transmission when the ulcers or infections are in genital areas that are covered or protected by the condom"

"Genital ulcer diseases include genital herpes, syphilis, and chancroid. These diseases are transmitted primarily through “skin-to-skin” contact from sores/ulcers or infected skin that looks normal."

---------------
This quote by the CDC is for the benefit of posters like "EBLEAS" that are misinformed and think that a condom will stop the infection of herpes.

It is true that the area (penis) that the condoms covers is protected but not true for other skin infected areas like the testicles, surrounding genitals, inner thighs and abdomen.

Quote by ebleas: "Then in addition to teaching sexual abstinence, you better also teach them kissing and touching abstinence as well. Because you can get Herpes Simplex Type I from kissing, you can get HPV (the strain that causes warts) simply from a handshake. So you better teach them never to kiss their relatives, or shake the hand of a stranger. Gee, what a life …"

----------

Thanks for reminding me that you can also pass herpes through oral sex. If a person has the herpes virus on the mouth they can pass it on to the genitals of their partner. Then they will have to deal with the breakouts for the rest of their lives.

From your sarcasm in dealing with a worldwide epidemic I got to add something useful to your not useful posts. Thanks again.

Quote by ebleas: "Hmmm, instead of worrying so much about them getting cervical cancer, you could have them vaccinated against it ... just a crazy thought. Oh, wait, that would cause them to become sexually promiscuous … scratch that."

---------------

You've just shown your complete ignorance on the topic. First, there are many parts of Africa where the Gardasil (Human Papilloma vaccination) is not available. Second, if you are over the age of 26 then you cannot get the vaccination. So that leaves millions upon millions of women at risk of gettting cervical cancer, cancer of the mouth and certain types of genital warts from the HPV.

Third the Gardasil vaccination is only for certain types of HPV not all of the 150 different strains (variations) of the virus. So, your "just get a shot and it won't be a problem" mindset shows that you lack an understanding of just how widespread the HPV infection problem is worldwide.

That you don't worry about women getting cervical cancer is horrific and irresponsible.

It's this mentality of "don't worry about it, just get a shot and you'll be ok" that is causing the Aids epidemic to spread due to many people not takinhg personal responsibility for their own actions.

I will continue to promote abstinence over your "just get a shot and you'll be fine" ignorance.

Given the large outpouring of support by Africans for Pope Benedict XVI, it's obvious that more than a few agreed with his statements and the Church's position on birth control.

The African Catholic Church seems to be a lot more alive -- and in the Spirit, than the Jesuits and the American Catholic Church.

"They do nothing to negate the statistics as to Human Papilloma being the #1 sexually transmitted disease in the USA with between 20 to 40 million Americans infected or the fact that HPV has over 150 strains. Some of these strains cause cervical cancer and cancer of the mouth."
****************

Hmmm, instead of worrying so much about them getting cervical cancer, you could have them vaccinated against it ... just a crazy thought. Oh, wait, that would cause them to become sexually promiscuous … scratch that.

"Condoms cannot prevent the skin on skin contact during sex where the virus of Human Papilloma and Herpes are also present in the flesh of the genitals, inner thighs and lower abdomen. It is not only in the secretions of the vagina and penis that these viruses can be found."
****************

Then in addition to teaching sexual abstinence, you better also teach them kissing and touching abstinence as well. Because you can get Herpes Simplex Type I from kissing, you can get HPV (the strain that causes warts) simply from a handshake. So you better teach them never to kiss their relatives, or shake the hand of a stranger. Gee, what a life …

"Condom-use does not prevent one from getting infected with genital herpes ..."
***************

My gosh, for someone who worked at an STD clinic, you certainly are misinformed.
------------

Condoms Protect Against Genital Herpes

University of Washington - Seattle researcher Dr. Anna Ward reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine that her new study of 1800 high risk adults has shown that condoms do help protect men and women from acquiring herpes simplex. Previous studies have shown that condoms do protect women but Ward's new research is the first to show condoms are effective in preventing herpes simplex in both men and women.
----------------

"I will promote abstinence every chance I get and not the irresponsibility of assuming that all kids and adults can't help themselves and will have sex anyway mentality."
****************

And I will continue to point out false and misleading information provided by people like you.

To all of you calling the Pope stupid, ill-informed, outdated...etc I have a wake-up call for you. I worked in a medical clinic for several years and can tell you that on average I saw 6 to 12 patients a day that I had to inform of their being infected with an STD.

Condom-use does not prevent one from getting infected with genital herpes, chlamydia, syphillis and Human Papilloma just to name a few STD's. If you happen to become infected with Human Papilloma (HPV) then your percentages of becoming infected with HIV are raised higher since it causes your immune system to become weakened and more susceptible to becoming infected.

Condoms cannot prevent the skin on skin contact during sex where the virus of Human Papilloma and Herpes are also present in the flesh of the genitals, inner thighs and lower abdomen. It is not only in the secretions of the vagina and penis that these viruses can be found.

How can I look any of my children in the eyes and say to them "Ok honey...use a condom and if you get Chlamydia, HPV or herpes then those are the breaks". And please spare me the... "what do you want? For kids to have sex without condoms and get HIV?" arguments. They do nothing to negate the statistics as to Human Papilloma being the #1 sexually transmitted disease in the USA with between 20 to 40 million Americans infected or the fact that HPV has over 150 strains. Some of these strains cause cervical cancer and cancer of the mouth.

I will promote abstinence every chance I get and not the irresponsibility of assuming that all kids and adults can't help themselves and will have sex anyway mentality.

Here is a link to an interesting article by a social worker in Kampala, Uganda. She writes, essentially, that condoms haven't helped slow the spread of AIDS and are insulting in light of the vast needs there: http://www.zenit.org/article-25480?l=english.

jmcdavisum
I appreciate your position, but the Pope's statement was confined to a specific question about AIDs prevention in Africa, not to general condom use.

Here is a lengthy quote from Edward C. Green, Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project Center at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Please note what he says in the last paragraph.

“We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working. The pope is correct, or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope’s comments. Condoms have been proven to not be effective at the ‘level of population.”

“There is a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded ‘Demographic Health Surveys,’ between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction ‘technology’ such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by ‘compensating’ or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology.”

“I also noticed that the pope said ‘monogamy’ was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than ‘abstinence.’ The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision).”

Chop2

The problem is ultimately a behavioral one that involves attitudes about sex. Condoms can be a reasonably effective partial solution, but they will never fix the problem which I would hope is everyone's goal. Ultimately a much more monogamous society is the only answer to containing the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Condom use can help contain the virus quickly in the short term. Their use can however be a double edged sword. Someone having multiple partners may be less likely to be persuaded by the virtues of monogamy if they feel adequately protected by condoms (which they are not). So they can be a long term barrier to a lasting solution. The trick is to encourage all the tools with the understanding that the eventual goal is a more monogamous society.

I don't agree with the pope, but your knee jerk response does not make any more sense. Its nice and comfortable to have simple ideas. Sure enough the church has resulted in awful things, but it also does a tremendous amount of good around the world. Considering things in their full context does take a lot more time and energy, but it saves you from rash judgements.

Ahhh the Pope! Someone who does not play the game, wants to set the rules!
It is evident how irrelevant this organization and it's leader have become. Why the media still pays attention to this old man's rambling is beyond reason. Let this cult leader talk to himself and the mirror but please save us from this nonsense!

Chop2,
That wasn't the Pope's statement. He statement was in response to a question about condom distribution in Afria, and he correctly state that condoms were not the solution. Green's column and the research support the Pope's comment. And I quote, "Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him."

ps, you're a bigot!

Blueiguana:
PEOPLE HAVE SEX. Deal with it, its reality. Its about doing it safely.

The article talked about having multiple sexual partners as being an issue in Africa specifically and risk compensation leading to people not using condoms within that situation as being a huge cause of the epidemic.

So its about choices:
What would u rather:
1) The promotion of safe sex coupled with monogamy and abstinence (if necessary)education within a comprehensive strategy OR
2) The Pope, opposed to any contraception because he thinks god told him, going to a place where people commonly have multiple partners and telling them not to use condoms and even if they do, that they dont work.

Answer that please. 1 or 2?

No sane person can dispute that the safest way to have sex with multiple partners is to use condoms. As the article said in Thailand etc where there is 100% use they have less rates of infection.

SO USE CONDOMS for christs sake, its not brainsurgery.

I repeat, the popes comments are genocidal stupidity.

He needs to ackowledge reality and aid in a comprehensive educational program not lie about the ineffectivness of contraception because he wants Catholics to breed like rabbits so his clergy can molest them when they grow up only for him to cover it up. Thanks god, thanks a bloody lot.

Chop2,
You really are uniformed on the matter.
Your assertion that the Pope's comment is a lie is dead wrong. Edward Green's column from last Friday's Post. He concludes, in the matter of condoms in Africa (which is what the Pope was talking about), the Pope's comments were accrurate and correct. You're wrong. Period.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032702825.html

Basically Mr. Ratzinger is a stupid old man.

Re: Harvard "backing" for Pope

If you dig a bit deeper you will find that the underlying key study concerned Uganda, and it noted that education, abstinence and condom use were all essential parts of the package:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/304/5671/714

"A comparative analysis of 1995 and 1989 Ugandan population-based surveys of HIV behavioral risk indicators offered evidence of important changes since 1989, including an increase in the age of sexual debut, a decrease in indicators of casual or nonregular partners, and an increase in the use of condoms, both overall and in casual partnerships (10, 12, 25, 26). The subsequent report, led by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), emphasized the relative importance of sexual debut and condom use (13)."

Blueiguana:
"it exposes the lie that using condoms equals safe (i.e., risk free) sex every time"

This is a classic straw man argument. No one credible has ever said using condoms is risk free everytime. Its about doing it as safely as possible.

"Question to ponder: If you boarded an airplane that held 100 passengers and were told that 5 to 15 of the passengers would die or be injured during the flight, would you call the flight a safe flight?"

If u had sex 100 times and were safe 85-95% percent of the time, wouldn't u use condoms insetad of being unsafe 100% of the time?

The only lie here is the Popes assertion that condoms make the problem worse.

Its genocidal stupidity.

Public release statements from the CDC

"Condoms and STDs: Fact Sheet for Public Health Personnel

Consistent and correct use of male latex condoms can reduce (though not eliminate) the risk of STD transmission. To achieve the maximum protective effect, condoms must be used both consistently and correctly. Inconsistent use can lead to STD acquisition because transmission can occur with a single act of intercourse with an infected partner.

Similarly, if condoms are not used correctly, the protective effect may be diminished even when they are used consistently.

The most reliable ways to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), are to abstain from sexual activity or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner. However, many infected persons may be unaware of their infections because STDs are often asymptomatic or unrecognized.

More from the CDC:
from the CDC-2006

"Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) remain a major public health challenge in the United States. While substantial progress has been made in preventing, diagnosing, and treating certain STDs in recent years, CDC estimates that approximately 19 million new infections occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24.1 In addition to the physical and psychological consequences of STDs, these diseases also exact a tremendous economic toll. Direct medical costs associated with STDs in the United States are estimated at up to $14.7 billion annually in 2006 dollars."

Bottom line: Condoms are not being used and/or are not very effective.

Only an ill-formed conscience can fail to see what the Pope is actually saying.

Davidscott1
Why don't you take the time to read Edward Green's research on the subject?

This latest bit of duncery proves once again that not only is the Pope no divine being's mortal representative on Earth, he's a dangerous fool. Condom-bashing indeed. What's wrong with this man? And this church?

To be sure, the Pope, the Vatican, and Edward C. Green probably believe they've scored a "slam dunk" with the "condoms lead to riskier behavior" argument. What they actually have done is made the same kind of flimsy, transparent rationalization which dooms every attempt by moralizing goody-two-shoes to address the wicked sinfulness of those who dare to act in ways which create pleasure.

The entire "War on Drugs" was lost when those who called themselves "authorities" equalized all illegal drugs. These people forgot three things. First, they forgot marijuana has been around a very long time and is not known, particularly, for its destructive qualities. Second, they characterized the milder illegal drugs, like marijuana, with the same extreme -- and ignorantly inaccurate -- terms as the more mind altering substances. Thirdly, they forgot that the 60's and 70's happened, and a whole generation grew into adulthood having experimented and knowing and understanding the realities of illegal drug use. All those personages saying, "Just say no to drugs," just made themselves sound like disingenuous yahoos who just wanted everbody to be as "miserable and liking it" as they were themselves!

This applies to the argument that providing condoms promotes riskier sexual behavior. This line is so stupid and ignorant that anyone who utters it should be discredited, dishonored, and dismissed outright! Why? Because, while HIV is primarily a sexually transmitted disease, not all sexual acts will likely result in infection. When most people think of sex, they envision the act of sexual intercourse -- the insertion of one participants sexual organ into the sexual organ of a partner. Guess what? This is the most efficient and the most common, and therefore the riskiest, way to be infected sexually with HIV. The most common of sex acts, not the kinkiest fetishes of a very particular few, is the riskiest behavior regarding HIV infection. Especially so, apparently, if one is Black African or of Black African descent!

Once again, the over-active, pleasure blocking, puritanically inclined minds of a jealous, hateful, and controlling few have, again, disqualified themselves as authorities by betraying their self-serving longings with a self-damning ignorance.

These ignoramuses would appear much more "with it" if, first, they acknowledged that pleasure and happiness are good things (if in moderation), and second, they took into account that it is simple, not sinful, human nature to desire and seek out that which is pleasurable.

I've read a couple of comments that contend that condoms are 95% effective (i.e., safe) when used properly. Failure rates can run as high as 16%, particularly in the heat of "passion."

Question to ponder: If you boarded an airplane that held 100 passengers and were told that 5 to 15 of the passengers would die or be injured during the flight, would you call the flight a safe flight?

Although not entirely analogous, given the high HIV infection rate in parts of Africa, it exposes the lie that using condoms equals safe (i.e., risk free) sex every time.

This is the real disconnect between the Church and the media. The Church, by nature, requires a deeper analysis than a snappy headline. Technically, condoms do NOT eliminate the risk, they only mitigate the risk. Condoms still break. OK - so they only break 1% of the time - the other 99% of the time doesn't really matter if you're that 1%. The media's argument also ignores selected indigenous teachings that condom distribution isn't going to overcome - such as a commonly held belief that sex with a virgin will cure an STD. There's no incentive to use a condom in that case. I'm Protestant, so I don't agree with RC teaching on birth control. But don't try to paint the Pope as somehow ignorant or inept. Rather he refuses to play the "gotcha game" with newspaper hacks.

"A study in Malawi showed that even though the average number of sexual partners was only slightly over two, fully two-thirds of this population was interconnected through such networks of overlapping, ongoing relationships."

Are those contemporaneous partners or serial partners? It makes a world of difference. The other secrets are the nature of the sexual acts that spread HIV heterosexually in Africa. The problem that "education" about HIV spread and condoms have in common is that it sometimes just covers up the subject.

The Church approves of the use of periodic abstinence in marriage - according to the cycle of the woman's fertility - for grave reasons. Certainly avoiding the transmission of AIDS to one's spouse is a grave reason. So it would be possible to use condoms against the disease during the woman's infertile time, and yet not be in violation of the prohibition against contraception. There would be no contraceptive effect since this would be an infertile time anyway. That said, the situation where one spouse is infected with AIDS and the other is not, and they are aware of it - is probably more prevalent in the minds of the Sophists than in the lives of those suffering from AIDS.

This episode demonstrated Benedict's lack of understanding of the situation in Africa, as well as the root causes of the spread of HIV. It's too bad there's no legal mechanism in Canon Law to allow for the resignation or impeachment of the Pope. The Church needs competent, compassionate leadership in our troubled times, not a narrow-minded, out of touch dogmatist like Benedict.

I knew exactly what the Pope meant when he made his initial comments. What I interpreted the Pope to say, is that you can hand out millions of condoms to folks; however, there will be a large percentage of folks who will not use them, regardless. And an even larger percentage of these same people are not in committed relationships, even though some may be married.

Everyone knows that most human beings, especially men, regardless of their culture, socio-economic backgrounds allows their natural human tendencies to cloud their best judgment when it comes to physical fulfillment.

Most people, especially men would rather experience those natural tendencies without some form of restriction. For many men, that level of relief is much more enjoyable without certain restrictions being placed on them.

This is not just an issue in Africa, but around the world.

This is truly unfortunate, because man chooses and some women will also choose to value the physical act above their own health and well-being.

The pope is guilty of murder. By condemning the use of condoms and by implying that condoms increase the spread of AIDs, the pope is telling his congregation not to protect themselves. What a cruel and shameful thing to do. The pope and the Catholic church continue to live in the dark ages, and are becoming more and more irrelevant as time goes on, just like most religions. Religion will be downfall of mankind.

Condoms are extremely effective against the spread of the HIV virus when used properly and consistently - this is an undisputable fact. Under these conditions, they are more than 95% effective. That's nothing to sneeze at. But as this article (and others) and the Pope point out, some people will feel invincible when using a condom, and will thus engage in riskier than normal behavior, thus negating the beneficial effects of using the condoms in the first place. But this only clearly illustrates the need to have education go along with condom dispersement. The combination of condoms, consistent use and education would quickly eradicate HIV even in places like Africa. So why take the approach that condoms are not effective when the total solution is not being properly deployed?

An analogy would be the use of air bags in cars. One could take the stance that since they have an air bag to protect them, they can engage in riskier than normal driving behavior. But does this mean we should not include air bags in cars as part of standard safely equipment?

dwickert51:

Nah. We've survived upheaval and controversy, barbarians, the Crusades, the Romans and being tossed to the lions, the Protestants, even corrupt Popes and clergy. We're here to stay. If anything we'll just lose the half-hearted Catholics who dilute the faith anyway.

Certainly nothing to fear from the NYT, bloggers and twitterers! Give it your best shot!

You guys need new leadership. A new perspective on clerical sexuality. To renounce the subjugation of women. You need to start right away. There isn't much time before you completely lose your constituency.

These are big things. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.