Here's an excerpt from a new article in Crisis Magazine explaining how one experienced journalist has decided to face the facts and then report the facts about the counter-productive policy of using condom distributions to try and fight AIDS.Since 1989, more than 4 billion condoms have been shipped to sub-Saharan Africa, yet the number of HIV-infected people continues to grow at an epidemic rate. This has led one expert to state that the exploding growth of the disease was one of the greatest failures in the history of public health.
Veteran medical journalist Sue Ellin Browder outlined the problem in the June issue of Crisis Magazine. Browder asks why HIV and AIDS cases have steadily increased, despite the continued efforts to supply Africans with condoms -- the supposed "silver bullet" solution to the problem. Some have even argued that the Church is responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans because of its traditional moral prohibition on condom usage.
However, the emerging consensus among public health professionals, according to Browder, is that at best, condoms should be the first line of defense only for extremely high-risk persons such as those involved in the commercial sex industry. One source Browder cites states the findings succinctly: "So far, there's no good evidence that condoms will reverse population-wide epidemics like those in sub-Saharan Africa." In fact, Browder argues that countries with the most condoms per man have the highest HIV infection rates...
