The Pope, HIV and condoms
posted: 13/09/2010
This week the Pope comes to Britain. Our interest is his part in the deaths caused by HIV of 2 million people each year. In May 2005, shortly after taking office, the Pope first talked about HIV, and came out against condoms.
He was addressing bishops from South Africa, where somebody dies of HIV every two minutes: Botswana with 23.9% of adults between 15 and 49 being HIV positive; Swaziland, where 26.1% of adults have HIV; Namibia, 15%; and Lesotho, 23%.
He has carried on since: in March 2009, while flying to Cameroon (where 540,000 people have HIV), Pope Benedict XVI explained that HIV is a tragedy "that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems".
In May 2009, the Congolese bishops conference celebrated with this announcement: "In all truth, the Pope's message which we received with joy has confirmed us in our fight against HIV/Aids. We say no to condoms!"
Leading English archbishop joins in
The Pope’s position has been supported, in the past year alone, by Cardinal George Pell of Sydney and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. "It is quite ridiculous to go on about AIDS in Africa and condoms, and the Catholic Church," says O'Connor. "I talk to priests who say, 'My diocese is flooded with condoms and there is more AIDS because of them."
Infected lies and nonsense
Some have been even more imaginative in their messages against condoms. In 2007, Archbishop Francisco Chimoio of Mozambique announced that European condom manufacturers are deliberately infecting condoms with HIV to spread AIDS in Africa. Out of every 8 people in Mozambique, one has HIV.
It was Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo of Colombia who most famously claimed that the HIV virus can pass through tiny holes in the rubber of condoms. Again, he was not alone. "The condom is a cork," said Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Spain, "and not always effective."
In 2005 Bishop Elio Sgreccia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, explained that scientific research has never proven that condoms "immunise against infection". He's right, they don't. They stop a virus that can kill you from being transmitted during sex.
Condoms stop 80% of HIV infections
How effective are condoms? It's always wise never to overstate a case. The latest systematic Cochrane review of the literature found 14 observational studies. These studies generally looked at HIV transmission in stable heterosexual couples where one partner had HIV. Overall, rates of HIV infection were 80% lower in the partners who reported always using a condom, compared to those who said they never did. 80% is very effective.
There is no single perfect solution to the problem of HIV: if things were that easy, HIV wouldn't be killing 2 million people every year. ‘ABC’ is a widely used HIV prevention acronym in Africa: it stands for abstain, be [faithful], [use a] condom.
Selecting one of the most effective elements from these three and actively campaigning against it is plainly destructive, just as telling people to abstain doesn't make everyone abstain, and telling people to use condoms won't make everyone use them. But the Pope has proclaimed: "The most effective presence on the front in the battle against HIV/Aids is the Catholic church and her institutions."
This is ludicrous. The pope leads the Catholic church which is the only major influential international political organisation that actively tells people not to do something that plainly works well.
It’s fine to preach abstention and being faithful. But deliberately and misleadingly sabotaging the use of condoms which are 80% effective and which prevent an infection that kills 2 million people a year, makes the Pope and the Catholic church a serious global public health problem.
Open Letter from NAT (National AIDS Trust) and FPA
Source The Guardian Bad Science column (edited)
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