AFRICA: Pope's comments stoke condom debate
In his first public statement on condoms and AIDS earlier this week, Pope Benedict XVI reignited an international debate between religious leaders working with AIDS patients and European governments that fund anti-HIV programmes in developing countries.
DAKAR, 20 March 2009 (IRIN) - En route to the capital Yaoundé in Cameroon, the pope said: "You can't resolve [the problem of HIV] with the distribution of condoms. On the contrary, it increases the problem." In addition, he said a responsible attitude toward sex would help fight the disease.
The French Foreign Ministry responded this week that the Catholic leader's comments are “a threat to public health policies and the duty to protect human life.”
For couples in which one person is infected with HIV, with the consistent use of condoms there is a less than one percent rate of transmission, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
In 2007 three-quarters of the world's AIDS deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, as were two-thirds of all people living with HIV.
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