Abstract

PIP: This paper presents highlights from a recently released, updated report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the effectiveness of condoms in the agency's weekly publication on August 6, 1993. Findings from two clinical studies show latex condoms to be highly effective against the sexual transmission of HIV when used consistently and correctly during sexual intercourse. The European Study on Heterosexual HIV Transmission followed 123 heterosexual HIV-discordant couples over the period 1987-91, while the second study in Italy followed 171 female partners of HIV-infected men. Sections briefly discuss consistent and correct condom use, other studies indicating that condoms have a high contraceptive failure rate, the Mariposa study which found several brands of condoms to leak viruses similar to HIV, safer sex education detractors on the basis of regular condom breakage, whether it is realistic to think that people will use condoms consistently and correctly, condom testing and regulation, the absence of microscopic holes in condoms through which HIV may pass, the 74% effectiveness of the female condom (Reality) in preventing pregnancy, nonoxynol-9, abstinence as a means of preventing HIV infection, the rationale behind the federal government's renewed support for condom use, education programs about condoms, and why the federal government would promote condoms when they are not 100% foolproof. The report therefore confirms the federal government's 1988 recommendations for using condoms to prevent the transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, in addition to providing new compelling information about consistent and correct condom use as well as the female condom.