Scientific Evidence of Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention [http://omhrc.gov/omh/aids/whatsnewcondomreport.pdf, password required]: This is a July 2001 report from NIAID about a workshop that it sponsored on June 12-13, 2000 addressing the effectiveness of condoms for preventing sexually transmitted diseases. Eight STDs were considered: "discharge diseases" (HIV, GC, Chlamydia, and trichomoniasis), "ulcerative diseases" (HSV, syphilis, and chancroid) and HPV. Five are considered curable (GC, C. trachomatis, syphilis, chancroid, and trichomoniasis); two are considered incurable (HSV and HIV), and one clears spontaneously in 90% (HPV). The conclusion by the Panel is that the male condom is highly effective in reducing transmission of HIV. This impression is based on a meta-analysis of results from 12 studies in which condom usage was classified as always, sometimes, or never. It is estimated that HIV transmission occurred with a frequency of 0.9/100 person-years among those who always used condoms compared to 6.7 seroconversions/100 person-years in those who never used them. This represents an 85% reduction in infection rates for always users vs. never users. There were also four epidemiological studies of gonorrhea indicating reduction in risk for men. The panel considered evidence that male condoms reduced transmission rates of other STDs to be unconvincing, in part because the quality of the studies was not adequate.
posted 8/31/2001

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