Condoms No Guarantee Against Sex-Linked Diseases, Study Says

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

Answers to the remaining questions about condom effectiveness for preventing STD infections will require well-designed and ethically sound clinical studies, says the National Institutes of Health study to be released today.

The draft does not draw conclusions about the adequacy of condoms in reducing the risk of disease “other than HIV transmission in men and women, and gonorrhea in men.” HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

AIDS activists distributed the report Thursday, contending that the Bush administration would use it to promote an abstinence-only agenda. The activists argue that abstinence warnings are not as effective in preventing sexually transmitted diseases as encouraging the use of condoms.

“The fact is young people are having sex,” said Michael Cover, a spokesman for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, a Washington-based clinic that primarily serves people infected with HIV. “Accurate information about condoms has to be made available.”