Dangerous misinformation about the lack of effectiveness of condoms is being spread from the highest levels of the Roman Catholic church throughout resource-limited countries, according to the BBC programme, Panorama.
Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, told the programme’s makers that HIV can “easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom.” The programme is due to be broadcast on BBC1 on Sunday October 12 (10.15pm - 11.05pm).
The Vatican has always been opposed to condom use, but until recently had used purely moral arguments, many of which are currently being discussed at the triennial Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.
According to an AFP report, the archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Okogie, recently named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II told the symposium that the church "cannot condone the use of condoms - indeed, we are campaigning against just that." The archbishop of Kumasi, Ghana, Peter Sarpong, spoke for many when he said that condoms "facilitate sexual licentiousness."
However, the pseudoscientific information currently coming from the Vatican appears to be a recent twist on their anti-condom campaign.
"The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon," Trujillo says in the programme ‘Sex and the Holy City'. "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."
When challenged by the programme makers with scientific evidence that shows that condoms - when used properly - are impermeable to sperm, HIV and any other STI, Trujillo dismisses the evidence. "They are wrong about that,” he says, “this is an easily recognisable fact."
The World Health Organisation completely rejects the Vatican view and told the programme: "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."
Ironically, Pope John Paul is the clear favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize today (Friday).
In general, condoms provide an effective barrier against HIV and other STIs, and given that so many people practice penetrative sex as part of their sex lives, it is important that they are used properly. They are still the most effective barrier to HIV transmission during sexual intercourse.
However, the main reason that condoms fail is because they are used incorrectly - for example, they are torn during opening, oil-based lubricants are used, or they are put on incorrectly - or because they were poorly manufactured.
Further information on this website
Condoms - menu of information
Condoms - factsheet
Further information on the web
A detailed summary of research evidence on condom effectiveness, published in 1997
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention factsheet on condom effectiveness