More research needed on barriers to sex diseases

Condoms are usually effective against fighting the spread of HIV and gonorrhoea, but there is not enough evidence to say for certain they protect against other sexually transmitted diseases, according to a draft report by federal health officials in the United States.

The National Institute of Health study does not draw conclusions about the adequacy of condoms in reducing the risk of disease other than HIV transmission in men and women, and gonorrhoea in men.

The institute calls for further studies.

Aids activists distributed the report, contending that the Administration of President George W. Bush would use it to promote an abstinence-only agenda.

The activists argue that encouraging the use of barrier contraceptives such as condoms is more effective in preventing STDs than abstinence warnings.

"The fact is young people are having sex," said Michael Cover, a spokesman for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, a Washington-based clinic that primarily looks after people infected with HIV.

"Accurate information about condoms has to be made available," he said.

A Health and Human Services Department official, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the authenticity of the report draft.

A panel of researchers examined dozens of existing studies involving HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, strains of genital herpes and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The group's main focus was trying to answer the question of how effective latex male-condom use is in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases during vaginal intercourse.

"The published data documenting effectiveness of the male condom were strongest for HIV," the draft said.

The draft said that one in five American adults had a sexually transmitted disease and roughly 15 million new STD infections occur each year.

Many of those new infections go undiagnosed, and therefore untreated.

- NZPA