http://www.nytimes.com/20...sheadlines

The Secret War on Condoms
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF


hree thousand years ago an amorous Egyptian couple (probably libidinous liberals) experimented with a linen pouch, producing the world's first known condom. Some right-wingers still haven't gotten over it.

Over the last few years conservative groups in President Bush's support base have declared war on condoms, in a campaign that is downright weird — but that, if successful, could lead to millions of deaths from AIDS around the world.

I first noticed this campaign last year, when I began to get e-mails from evangelical Christians insisting that condoms have pores about 10 microns in diameter, while the AIDS virus measures only about 0.1 micron. This is junk science (electron microscopes haven't found these pores), but the disinformation campaign turns out to be a far-reaching effort to discredit condoms, squelch any mention of them in schools and discourage their use abroad.

"The only absolutely guaranteed, permanent contraception is castration," one Catholic site suggests helpfully. Hmmm. You first.

Then there are the radio spots in Texas: "Condoms will not protect people from many sexually transmitted diseases."

A report by Human Rights Watch quotes a Texas school official as saying: "We don't discuss condom use, except to say that condoms don't work."

I'm all for abstinence education, and there is some evidence that promoting abstinence helps delay and reduce sexual contacts both in the U.S. and abroad. But young people have been busily fornicating ever since sex was invented, in 1963 (as the poet Philip Larkin put it), and disparaging condoms is far more likely to discourage their use than to discourage sex. The upshot will be more gonorrhea and AIDS among young Americans — and, abroad, many more people dying young.

So far President Bush has not fully signed on to the campaign against condoms, but there are alarming signs that he is clambering on board. Last month at an international conference in Bangkok, U.S. officials demanded the deletion of a reference to "consistent condom use" to fight AIDS and sexual diseases. So what does this administration stand for? Inconsistent condom use?

Then there was the Condom Caper on the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control. A fact sheet on condoms was removed and, eventually, replaced by one that emphasized that they may not work.

"The Bush administration position basically condemns people to death by H.I.V./AIDS," said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "And we're talking about tens of millions of people."

Evangelical groups do superb work in Africa, running clinics for some of the world's most wretched people — like poor AIDS victims. So it's baffling to see these same groups buying into junk science in ways that will lead to many more AIDS deaths.

(The scientific consensus is simple: Condoms are far from perfect, but they greatly reduce the risk of H.I.V. and of gonorrhea for men, and they probably also reduce the risk of other sexual infections — but more studies are needed to prove the case definitively. See, for example, the National Institutes for Health report at http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/ stds/condomreport.pdf.)

One study by the University of California at Berkeley found condom distribution to be astonishingly cost-effective, costing just $3.50 per year of life saved. In contrast, antiretroviral therapy cost almost $1,050.

Yet the U.S. is now donating only 300 million condoms annually, down from about 800 million at the end of the first President Bush's term. Consider Botswana, which has the highest rate of H.I.V. infection in the world — 39 percent of adults. According to figures in a report on condoms by Population Action International, the average man in Botswana gets less than one condom per year from international donors.

In the time it has taken to read this column, 28 people have died of AIDS, including 5 children. An additional 49 people have become infected. It's imperative that we get over our squeamishness, accept that condoms are flawed but far better than nothing, recognize that condoms no more cause sex than umbrellas cause rain, and ensure that couples in places like Botswana get more than one condom per year.

The whole HIV/AIDS situation is full of rumours for the simple fact that there are so few scientific facts publicly available.

Question: If a [male/female] person were to have [type of] sex with a [male/female] partner and [wear/not wear] a condom in [location] how likely would they be in catching the HIV/AIDS virus?

How will your health affect that risk?
What are the true statistics of HIV infection in terms of sex, intravenous needles, passing by child birth and so on?

There are a myriad of facts and statistics which are simply not available. Until they are well known then HIV/AIDS will continue to be a feared disease and policy will be based on a lack of facts or mere heresay.

The merits of condoms must also be considered in relation to other diseases and pregnancy. Surely anything that is a hindrance, even if not perfect, is a good thing?

For conservatives, it's all just a big Morality Play. It's about judgement and "deserving" what you get ('you made your bed, now lie in it'). Just wait til Bush's daughters start fucking around...

BUSH IS A FUCK ANY HOW I thout Marjuana almost be came legal just before the first Bush BUT the first Bush squashed that shit and made it harder and started the whole tax wasting cycl all over again This Bush is just continuing his fathers idiotic 1950's style ideas holsome family value cRAP THAT hardly exhist for very few people on this earth so they are tryin to condem everyone who dont share THIER values