Promiscuity spreads Aids
From Dr James McEvoy
Sir: I enjoyed Frank Johnson’s analysis of the recent papal election (Shared opinion, 23 April), but it is a pity he repeats the canard that the Catholic Church helps to propagate Aids in Africa by advocating sexual faithfulness rather than condom use. I am not a Roman Catholic, but I am a scientist, and the fact is that condom use has not helped to stop the spread of Aids in Africa, and is unlikely to do so in the future. The recent review of the subject conducted for the (not notably conservative) Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) concluded that, where there is widespread heterosexual transmission of the disease, ‘the public health benefit of condom promotion ... remains unestablished. In countries like Uganda that have curbed generalised epidemics, reducing the number of individuals’ sex partners appears to have been more important than promoting the use of condoms.’ The Catholic Church’s recommendations in Africa, however irritating they might be to many Europeans, are therefore medically correct.
James McEvoy Yale University,
New Haven, Connecticut
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