Spat Over Condom Wrapper Wording

Label Debated In Argument Over STD Prevention

(AP)  When latex condoms are used every time and put on early enough, they reduce chances of pregnancy over a one-year period to 3 percent, compared with 85 percent without birth control. Likewise, condoms cut risk of HIV infection by about 80 percent, to less than a 1 percent chance of infection per year.

According to the National Institutes of Health, condoms are impermeable to the smallest viruses and only break or slip off 1 percent to 2 percent of the time.

But surveys show most people don't use them properly or consistently, and roughly 12 million Americans each year contract an STD.

In 2001, an expert panel convened at Coburn's request, examined dozens of studies and reported condoms cut transmission of AIDS and gonorrhea by 50 to 100 percent but that that for other STD's evidence on protection is unclear. Individual studies cited in the report show prevention rates range from 18 percent to 92 percent, depending on the disease.

The Medical Institute for Sexual Health's board chairman, Dr. Tom Fitch, said some STDs are much more easily spread than others - herpes and human papilloma virus, or HPV, can be transmitted by contact with skin not covered by a condom.

Fitch said he would not discourage condom use, but his group advocates abstinence or monogamy.

That's an "unrealistic explanation" for young people, said Dr. Shari Brasner, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York who has patients as young as 13 who are sexually active.

Meanwhile, Lori Heise of the Global Campaign for Microbicides, said her group is trying to correct the false belief that nonoxynol-9, the spermicide used in contraceptive creams, some lubricated condoms and some personal lubricants, protects against spread of STDs.

Recent evidence shows it does not. The detergent-like spermicide can irritate the vagina or rectum, making it easier to become infected with an STD. The campaign is working to have nonoxynol-9 removed from lubricants and condoms.