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Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
I found this in
socialwork
socialwork
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
Steve Bradshaw
Thursday October 9, 2003
The Guardian
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the HIV virus.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue.
The church's claims are revealed in a BBC1 Panorama programme, Sex and the Holy City, to be broadcast on 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.
"These margins of uncertainty... should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."
The WHO 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 organisation says "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%. There may be breakage or slippage of condoms - but not, the WHO says, holes through which the virus can pass .
Scientific research by a group including the US National Institutes of Health and the WHO found "intact condoms... are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD pathogens including the smallest sexually transmitted virus... condoms provide a highly effective barrier to transmission of particles of similar size to those of the smallest STD viruses".
The Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo said: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
The church opposes any kind of contraception because it claims it breaks the link between sex and procreation - a position Pope John Paul II has fought to defend.
In Kenya - where an estimated 20% of people have the HIV virus - the church condemns condoms for promoting promiscuity and repeats the claim about permeability. The archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki, said: "Aids... has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
Sex and the Holy City includes a Catholic nun advising her HIV-infected choirmaster against using condoms with his wife because "the virus can pass through".
In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids."
Panorama found the claims about permeable condoms repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America.
· Steve Bradshaw is a correspondent with Panorama. Sex and the Holy City will be broadcast on BBC1 at 10.15pm on Sunday
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
I found this in
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socialwork
Vatican: condoms don't stop Aids
Steve Bradshaw
Thursday October 9, 2003
The Guardian
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms are impermeable to the HIV virus.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health Organisation that they are untrue.
The church's claims are revealed in a BBC1 Panorama programme, Sex and the Holy City, to be broadcast on 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.
"These margins of uncertainty... should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger."
The WHO 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 organisation says "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%. There may be breakage or slippage of condoms - but not, the WHO says, holes through which the virus can pass .
Scientific research by a group including the US National Institutes of Health and the WHO found "intact condoms... are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD pathogens including the smallest sexually transmitted virus... condoms provide a highly effective barrier to transmission of particles of similar size to those of the smallest STD viruses".
The Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo said: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
The church opposes any kind of contraception because it claims it breaks the link between sex and procreation - a position Pope John Paul II has fought to defend.
In Kenya - where an estimated 20% of people have the HIV virus - the church condemns condoms for promoting promiscuity and repeats the claim about permeability. The archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki, said: "Aids... has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
Sex and the Holy City includes a Catholic nun advising her HIV-infected choirmaster against using condoms with his wife because "the virus can pass through".
In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that condoms are laced with HIV/Aids."
Panorama found the claims about permeable condoms repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America.
· Steve Bradshaw is a correspondent with Panorama. Sex and the Holy City will be broadcast on BBC1 at 10.15pm on Sunday
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 03:07 pm (UTC)They do list a disjointed quote from a Cardinal, but there’s nothing in his statement to say exactly what he’s referring to. They mention the Pope’s continual stance against birth control, and by doing so, they imply but do NOT state that the pope is behind the misinformation that is being distributed about AIDS and condom use.
So I did a google search and didn’t find any other evidence to back this one article up. I did find that some Africans do believe that condoms are laced with AIDS:
http://www.thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Archive/Infected/Q139006.html
And this is the only information to corroborate the first article listed in this email was this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3147672.stm
It has one sentence that says that the Nairobian archbishop blames condoms for the spread of AIDS.
None of this leads me to believe that it is a stance of the Catholic church. Instead, it sounds like the officials within some countries may hold this stance. I'm not sure what the Catholic's church stance is. I know that it believes that condoms and birth control are wrong, but I doubt that it's gone so far as to say condoms are laced with aids or are ineffective against AIDS.
Someone else already pointed out that the article doesn’t specify what kinds of condoms are considered unreliable. I do believe that certain people within the Catholic church may have this stance (lets face it certain people in all groups are stupid), and it sounds to me like the journalist decided to spin an article that is very anti-catholic since that’s a very trendy belief these days. If this were an official stance of the Catholic church, ALL the news sources would have picked it up, and there’d be reports from the church defending itself, etc
However, just because it’s not the official stance of the Catholic church doesn’t mean that there aren’t lower level officials spreading this blatant lie. Now here’s the thing – are they purposely spreading misinformation or are they spreading something that they’ve heard to be true and believe? If you heard that something could seriously harm someone, wouldn’t you tell them it was unsafe? Not everybody checks their facts (obviously, or I wouldn’t still get warnings about the unsafe spider that bites your ass and kills you when you sit on the public toilets in Burger King and Grand Central Station).
It’s very well possible that various priests or other church officials have heard that condoms are not safe and are telling it to their parishners, and that this misinformation has spread like wildfire through various communities and even countries.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 09:43 pm (UTC)http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0019415.cfm
Now, Focus on the Family is about as right-wing as you can get. And they say basically that all the church is saying is that condoms don't really work as well as you think they do - which is pretty much the same thing as this article claims. The Vatican website just says they oppose condom use, even in cases where HIV is involved, because if a person is infected they just shouldn't have sex, basically.
Not that I'm arguing, I too was frustrated with the lack of other information on this. But I suspect that though the article may be biased, it's not at all far from wrong.
sorry :-(
Date: 2003-10-10 01:16 am (UTC)They *specifically* mention latex, to boot :-(
Although, in 1988, the Vatican newpaper apparently said they'd be tolerent...
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/15/84931
nope, those were "twisted words": http://www.cathtelecom.com/news/009/90.html
Re: sorry :-(
Date: 2003-10-10 05:39 am (UTC)Re: sorry :-(
Date: 2003-10-10 05:59 am (UTC)I wanna call it a cult, but in the old-school defintion of the word, none of this cool-aide-drinking, brain-washing & money-taking bs stuff for me! (the proper RC church seems to do enough of all that as it is :( )
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 07:07 am (UTC)I would think that this "not perfect use" which has reduced the percentage rate of effectiveness to prevent pregnancy would also reduce the percentage rate to prevent STDs (and AIDs) as well.
I'm not backing the stance of not using condoms that the article quoted, but I do think that perhaps the RC church might have a point about condoms being not as effective as people think. Granted, this is speculation with no numbers, but if spermies can get in so can viruses.
However, to say don't use anything at all is worse b/c an 85% (guessing) effective rate is still better than nothing.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 09:01 am (UTC)