Condoms may aggravate the problem…show studies in Harvard.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTNlNDc1MmMwNDM0OTEzMjQ4NDc0ZGUyOWYxNmEzN2E#

But yeah, barely anyone listens to this…

Anyway, liked your post! (and your comment, christian)

Take care.

C.

Best,

Small Business Loans

cas

Based on this reasoning, individuals tend to take greater risks when they use condoms, and thus in the end may not be any likely to be infected. Dr. Edward Green, the Director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard School of Public Health and Center for Population and Development Studies, agrees with the pope that in Africa, when condoms are more used, there tend to be greater rates of infection, and he sees this as partly a result of “risk compensation”–people feel safer with condoms, and so they take more risks.

Dr. Edward Green is a medical anthropologist with 30 years of experience in developing countries and in the fight against AIDS.

The following is from an interview with him: [Source]

The Pope’s statement about AIDS and condoms is at the centre of a sharp debate and many – from Mr. Kouchner to Mr. Zapatero, including the EU Commission – have claimed his position to be abstract and eventually dangerous. What is your opinion ?

I am a liberal on social issues and it’s difficult to admit, but the Pope is indeed right. The best evidence we have shows that condoms do not work as an intervention intended to reduce HIV infection rates, in Africa. (They have worked in e.g. Thailand and Cambodia, which have very different epidemics)

In a recent interview to NRO you said that there is no consistent association between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates. Could you deepen this point?

What we see in fact is an association between greater condom use and higher infection rates. We don’t know all the reasons for this but part of it is due to what we call risk compensation. This means that a man using condoms believes that they are more effective than they really are, and so he ends up taking greater sexual risks. Another fact which is widely overlooked is that condoms are used when people are engaging in casual or commercial sex. People don’t use condoms with spouses or regular partners. So if condom rates go up, it may be that we are seeing an increase of casual sex.

So, even if it is surprising, it is proven that a higher use of condoms is associated with higher infection rates.

People began noticing years ago that the countries in Africa with the highest condom availability and highest condom user rates, also had the highest HIV infection rates. This does not prove a causal relation, but it should have made us look critically at our condom programs years ago.

By the way, no one has come up with any evidence for the disinhibition argument against condoms. There is evidence around ART leading to riskier behavior, but no one is arguing that we give up on that strategy.

It is really frustrating as an african to hear (or read) people talking about something they have not seen or only thought of in a hypothetically way.

There is Poverty in Africa, but Condoms are extremely cheap.

People who cannot afford them, can have them for free.

I’m a christian, and I used to be catholic, but I don’t know what people were expecting from the Pope. The Vatican is not a liberal institution, it is highly conservative. matter of facts, it easy to say, that condoms won’t solve the AIDS issue in Africa, but what will then??? please propose a viable solution and much more complex and logical than just talking about abstinence.

It is and has always been a conservative thing to say that throwing money at something won’t solve anything. but who says this is wasted money??? My father has worked 20 years as a MD against HIV/AIDS, and for family health and prevention. and I can tell that In my country there has been progress, but there is still a lot of work…

who says condom are not working in africa is wrong. in every enterprise there are difficulties, and the main difficulties are education related.

what people need in Africa, is education. by educating the people, by creating schools, by promoting sexual education in schools (which is offered and obligatory in my country) this is how we will help these countries.

and something to protect themselves against STDs such as AIDS. and Condoms are the answers

talking about marriage, talking about abstinence is totally pointless since not everybody is Muslim or christian, I believe people know that Africans weren’t neither christian or Muslim to begin with… the pope should think about that, but I don’t even want to listen to anything a religious has to say about it.

Michael Cook | Saturday, 21 March 2009

African AIDS: the facts that demolish the myths

The mystery of why AIDS has been so devastating in Africa has been solved. And it’s not lack of condoms.

Benedict XVI’s recent comment on the African AIDS crisis — “the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem” – provoked an international sensation all out of proportion to its half-sentence length.

Continue reading here .

My takeaway? Don’t look for or claim magic bullets and don’t jettison old strategies that have had limited success. This is true if you are the Pope or if you are funding HIV control programs.

What is so particularly irrational and different, that sets humans who inhabit Africa apart from other humans? Are you trying to say that Africa’s modern history is defined by AFrican irrationality?

You seem to be ignorant of what the Pope is proposing. The Pope is not asking for abstinence but really the opposite. He is just saying that when you do have sex it’s within marriage. I have been married for 9 years and I have never cheated on my wife. This commitment is doable. Now asking me to use a condom every single time I have sex. This is a lot harder and a more frustrating task.