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HIV/Aids: Condoms have not made much difference (Maximillia Muninzwa, 7/17/02, East African Standard)

The Population Division of the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs has concluded that condoms have failed to solve the Aids pandemic. That the availability of condoms has not significantly altered individuals’ sexual behaviours. This revelation follows an exhaustive analysis survey in developing countries.

The report further asserts that even though much effort has been spent in promoting the prophylactic use condoms as part of the HIV/Aids prevention, the condom has not become more popular among sexually active men and women. This is in spite of widespread knowledge about HIV/Aids and easy access of condoms. [...]

I have no quarrels to pick with the condom, but I believe that those who do not approve of this c-word as a prophylactic simply and purely bring forth an ethical context to the beauty of sexuality and sexual intercourse aesthetics aside.

If we were just a little more honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge that the c-word has left us with a world of absolute sexual licence. A world where everyone is encouraged to be faithfully promiscuous because “everyone belongs to everyone else.”

Otherwise why would we dismiss with such disdain those who sound the warning trumpet?

Even less discussed is the fact that condoms have a significantly higher failure rate during anal sex, which is obviously germane to the prevention of AIDs. Advocacy of condom use, in the face of all we know about its failure to prevent the spread of AIDs, represents the triumph of the politics of liberal sexuality over the science of disease prevention. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 17, 2002 11:37 AM