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HIV can 'slip' through condom
09/10/2003 16:02 - (SA)
London - The Vatican is running a campaign in countries hit by HIV/Aids to the effect that condoms do not prevent transmission of the disease, according to a BBC Panorama programme to be broadcast Sunday.
The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told the programme: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the net that is formed by the condom."
He called on health ministries to issue similar health warnings on condom packets as they do with cigarettes.
The World Health Organisation has condemned the Vatican's views, saying: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million."
The WHO believes correct condom use can cut the risk of HIV infection by 90% and attributes failure to breakage or slippage, rather than holes through which the virus can pass.
The Guardian said scientific research by the US National Institutes of Health and the WHO found "intact condoms ... are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD (sexually transmitted disease) pathogens".
But Trujillo said: "They are wrong about that ... this is an easily recognisable fact."
The church has long opposed the use of condoms or the pill as contraceptives, as they break the link between sex and procreation, although it does allow "natural" methods, such as monitoring the woman's ovulation cycles.
The church also believes contraception encourages promiscuity. - Sapa-DPA
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