Study: Condoms Failed to Halt AIDS Spread in Africa

Fr. Michael Reilly reports on astonishing new findings that debunk the popular myth that condoms are the best tool we have in the war against AIDS

New data based on the results of massive condom distribution in Africa indicates that condoms have done little if anything to slow the spread of AIDS on the continent, according to Austin Ruse of the Culture of Life Foundation.

In fact, they may even contribute to the spread of HIV because they give people a false sense of security.

Last week, AIDS experts at the Medical Institute for Sexual Health HIV/Pandemic in Washington, D.C., presented data showing a correlation between the availability of condoms and an increase in promiscuity.

"Twenty years into the pandemic there is no evidence that more condoms leads to less AIDS," Dr. Edward C. Green of Harvard’s' Center for Population and Development Studies, told the gathering.

"We are not seeing what we expected: that higher levels of condom availability result in lower HIV prevalence," Green added.

Dr. Norman Hearst of the University of California told the conference that studies of several African nations (Kenya, Botswana) show a link between increased condom sales and rising numbers of HIV infections each year.

Dr. Hearst warned that we are "raising a generation of young people in Africa that believe that condoms will prevent HIV." In reality, condoms tend to fail up to 20 percent of the time, he said.

The condom-based safe-sex propaganda tends to give many a false sense of security – encouraging further promiscuity.

"Having multiple sexual partners drives AIDS epidemics," Dr. Green warned. "If people did not have multiple sex partners, epidemics would not develop or, once developed, be sustained."

"Over a lifetime, it is the number of sexual partners [that matter]. ... Condom levels are found to be non-determining of HIV infection levels," Green added.

In Uganda, on the other hand, a 65 percent decline in casual sex practices has resulted in declines in HIV infection rates, according to statistics cited by Dr. Rand Stoneburner, formerly with the World Health Organization.

By promoting programs touting abstinence and faithfulness, the Ugandan government helped bring about a 75 percent decline in HIV prevalence in the 15-19 age group, 60 percent in those age 20-24, and a 54 percent decline overall by 1998.

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