CONTENTS

          Chapters
  1. The Condom Gap: A Health Crisis
  2. Sexual Behavior and Condoms
  3. Knowledge of Condoms and AIDS
  4. How Effective Are Condoms?
  5. New Condoms for the New Millennium
  6. Improving Access
  7. Promoting Condoms
  8. Policies for Condom Use

HIGHLIGHTS

Population Reports is published by the Population Information Program, Center for Communication Programs, The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, Maryland 21202-4012, USA


Volume XXVII, Number 1
April, 1999

Series H, Number 9
 Policies for Condom Use

As the need for condoms grows, so does the need for national and international support for family planning and for AIDS prevention. Many countries need to strengthen policies to improve access to condoms and promote them more.

International human rights law calls for governments to permit and provide information that helps people protect their reproductive health and their right to make choices (109). Governments have been urged to end restrictions on condom distribution (256) and change laws that prohibit condom promotion and advertising (212, 592). The 1994 Cairo ICPD Program of Action declared that promotion and distribution of condoms should be integral to reproductive health care and urged WHO and other international organizations to increase procurement of condoms (543). WHO and other international agencies have asked governments to insure that their people have information about and access to condoms (156, 256, 257, 397, 540, 595).

National Support

Virtually all governments officially approve of the use of condoms and other contraceptives, and in recent years some countries with neutral policies toward family planning have adopted supportive policies, while others have moved from opposition to neutrality (108, 545). Many governments, however, have been slow to develop adequate policies toward HIV/AIDS (574).

National policies toward HIV/AIDS and other STIs have faced uncertainty about whether to emphasize prevention or treatment (491). Some fear that developing and funding new programs to prevent the spread of AIDS and other STIs may take support away from established treatment programs (577). This has happened in South Africa, where in 1998 the Health Minister angered physicians by halting funding for the AZT treatment of pregnant HIV-infected women, arguing that the money would be better spent on prevention (149).

Many feel that focusing on prevention holds the best hope for slowing the epidemic, unless a vaccine or a cure can be found (22, 24, 182, 414, 439, 587). Even if a vaccine is found, condoms will remain important for protection against many other STIs (223).


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