By Gudrun Schultz
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A medical journalist has added her voice to claims that the explosion in HIV/AIDS infection rates is directly linked to reliance on condom use as a virus preventative.
Writing for Crisis Magazine, prize-winning investigative journalist Sue Ellin Browder said the growing consensus among public health professionals is that condoms should only be used as a last measure of protection for persons involved in extremely high-risk activity such as sex-trade work.
Zenit News Agency reported yesterday on Browder’s conclusions. “So far, there’s no good evidence that condoms will reverse population-wide epidemics like those in sub-Saharan Africa,” Browder wrote. She offered evidence that dramatic increases in condom distribution in African nations paralleled an explosion in HIV/AIDS infection rates within the population.
Citing statistics from South Africa, Browder stated that condom distribution between 1994 and 1998 leaped to 198 million from 6 million, but death rates from HIV/AIDS in the years between 1997 and 2002 saw a massive 57 per cent increase.
A report from the UNAIDS agency in 2003 confirmed the dangers of relying on condoms to protect against the HIV/AIDS virus. The report showed that condoms are ineffective in protecting against HIV an estimated 10% of the time. That estimate, although itself a major blow to population control activists who have consistently claimed condoms to be 100% effective, is still far lower than some studies which have shown more than a 50% failure rate.
Ms. Browder’s report echoes the warnings of multiple medical experts, among them Dr. Norman Hearst of the University of California, who raised the alarm on condom use as an AIDS preventative in 2004. Dr. Hearst presented statistics showing a marked correlation between increased condom sales in the African nations of Kenya, Botswana, and others, and a parallel increase in HIV rates by year.
Promoting abstinence and marital faithfulness has had the only significant measurable impact on reducing HIV infection rates in Africa. The country of Uganda has achieved an unprecedented reduction in HIV transmission rates, up to 18%, with a program known as the ABC approach—‘A’ stands for ‘abstinence’ and ‘B’ for ‘be faithful.’ ‘C’, for ‘condom use’ is suggested only as a last-ditch effort to find some protection from the disease, recommended as a partial safety net for those who insist on engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour.
“Most sub-Saharan African nations, following the pro-condoms model, continue to suffer from rising HIV infection rates. Ugandan surveys show a reduction in premarital sexual activity among Ugandan youth and a reduction in extramarital activity among adults,” wrote Population Researcher Institute’s Joseph A. D’Agostino.
Ms. Browder herself has blamed the sexual revolution in Western society for leading directly to today’s AIDS epidemic, stating that, “If truth be told, the revolution has been a disaster…. Today we have more than two dozen varieties [of sexually transmitted disease], from pelvic inflammatory disease…to AIDS (which presently infects 42 million people worldwide and has already killed another 23 million),” in an article for Crisis Magazine in 2004.
Read Zenit News Agency coverage:
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=91414
See related LifeSiteNews coverage:
United Nations Report says Condoms Fail to Protect against AIDS 10% of the Time
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2003/jun/03062303.html
New Research Confirms Condoms Not Effective in HIV Prevention
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04011408.html
UN Anger Over Uganda's Successful Abstinence Program Fueled by Loss of Funds Says Researcher
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/oct/05101404.html
