Condom Safety revisited

15.AUG.08

Editor: Recently, much bad advice regarding condoms has been given. In order that we do not forget how uncertain condom safety is, I have again presented below a list of reasons why condoms fail so frequently.{{more}} The below list is taken from HLI’s condom expose` (http://www.hli.org/condom_expose.html):

1. Condoms can have manufacturers’ defects.

2. Condoms age. One study found that the breakage rate for condoms increased from 3.6% for new condoms to as high as 18.6% for condoms several years old. An expiry date is not an indication of age.

3. Condoms deteriorate in even the best of conditions, but even more rapidly in extremely cold or hot situations. Condom wrappers recommend storing the product at temperatures between 59 and 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Most condoms coming to this region arrive in un-insulated containers. This means one can safely assume the condoms have been exposed to temperatures that exceed aforementioned limits.

4. Condom users caught up in passion do not properly follow the ten-to-sixteen-step process for safe usage.

5. Condom Users intoxicated by alcohol, marijuana or some other drug will not exercise proper judgment in selecting partners, or following recommended condom use steps.

6. Bodily secretions can work around and over a condom’s rim, even if it does not break.

7. Deliberate condom tampering by malicious individuals bent upon vengeful spreading of disease or impregnating unsuspecting partners.

8. The failure rate of the condom regarding HIV prevention starts at 15%.

9. There are a host of STD’s against which the condom’s failure rate is worse than against aids; Hepatitis B, HPV, HSV2, to name a few.

Faced with the above, it is easy to see why suggesting that school aged children be handed condoms and be left to their own devices is highly irresponsible. When we further consider that many school-aged girls become the victims of older licentious males, the suggestion becomes even more abhorrent.

The Searchlight has in the past published the fact that 20% of all births in SVG were to under aged girls. The problem in SVG is largely adult on teen sex. This is attested to by head of the family court, the head of pediatrics at the hospital, teachers, and anyone involved in social services; they know the horrific extent to which minors suffer in this country. They suffer incest, statutory rape, and they are sold into prostitution by parents and guardians. Suggesting that condoms be handed to minors in the midst of these egregious situations betrays a lack of knowledge of SVG’s reality, and consequently a diminished capacity for seeking Justice.

What we must do as a people is protect our minors from this kind of abuse; they are the future. We need also to be faithful, and monogamous. We need further to spread the message of abstinence to the young, not by word, but by deed. Those who intend on entering into sexual relations should be tested together for a range of diseases. Quite literally, we cannot afford to do otherwise.

SALT