Condom use statistics show Pope is right about spread of Aids in Africa

POPE Benedict’s claim that condoms have helped to spread Aids in Africa has raised an outcry, but a brief survey of hard facts in African countries shows he is right.

Between 1989 and 2006 more than four billion condoms were sent to sub-Saharan Africa. By 2004 Dr Norman Hearst of the University of California was able to show a correlation between sales of condoms in different African states and the prevalence of Aids/HIV: higher sales in a given state meant more Aids/HIV.

In South Africa, condom distribution between 1994 and 1998 increased from six million to 198 million, yet between 1997 and 2002 deaths from HIV/Aids rose by 57% in that country.