Tests Confirm Condom Use Blocks AIDS Virus

Laboratory studies have confirmed that the use of condoms can prevent the sexual transmission of the AIDS virus, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center announced Tuesday.

Public health officials long have recommended the use of condoms as a “safe-sex” practice. But until now, the scientific basis for that recommendation had not been established.

At a press conference in San Francisco, Dr. Marcus A. Conant, a dermatologist, reported that the AIDS virus--as well as a related virus found in mice--could not pass through the fine membranes of the five commercially available condoms that were tested.