CONDOM LABEL CHANGES SPARK DEBATE

Genital warts (HPV) included on condom packet warning

That tiny bit of print on a condom packet is at the center of a raging debate (reports Associated Press), now that President George W. Bush has asked the Food and Drug Administration to modify the current warning to include information about human papillomavirus, commonly called HPV or genital warts.

On one side are scientists who believe that condoms should be promoted as a crucial line of defense against several STDs and cervical cancer. On the other are groups that advocate waiting for sex until marriage, and who see the dangers of HPV as an argument for their cause.

Justin Kleinman hadn't noticed the condom packet wording until he squinted to read it recently.

"This is completely pointless," the 24-year-old Chicagoan said of the warning telling him that while condoms can help prevent the spread of some sexually transmitted diseases, there are no guarantees.

"The lack of information getting to the American public regarding this disease is beyond comprehension," said Linda Klepacki, manager of the abstinence policy department at Focus on the Family, a Colorado-based organization.

As reported by Associated Press, Klepacki and others point to research showing that condoms do not necessarily prevent the spread of HPV, in part because it may be found on parts of the body the latex devices do not cover. Abstinence is the best way to prevent the disease, she argues.

Adding that information to a condom label would be "truth in advertising," said Libby Gray. She is the director of Project Reality, an Illinois-based group that teaches public school students about abstinence - and notes that most students she speaks with have no idea what HPV is.

But scientists who study HPV worry that abstinence groups are dismissing important information to promote their own values.

"I want to be polite. But it appalls me when I see scientific and medical studies being manipulated for a different agenda," said Tom Broker. He is a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and president of the International Papillomavirus Society, a coalition of experts who study HPV.

The focus, Broker said, should be on the fact that condoms have been shown to reduce the risk of cervical cancer, which is caused by HPV and which can be detected and treated if women get regular PAP smears. (The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recent report to Congress that included the same conclusion.)

Broker also said research has shown that HPV transmission is less likely when a person does not have other STDs, such as HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia, which condoms have been shown to combat.

Both he and Dr. Ward Cates, former head of the CDC's STD/HIV prevention group, agreed that teaching abstinence is a key to preventing the spread of disease.

But when someone becomes sexually active, they also believe that "condoms are the best imperfect way we have," said Cates, now president of Family Health International.

SOURCE: By Martha Irvine, Associated Press in PLANetWIRE, 02/APR/04
LINKS: HPV information: http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/HPVInfo.htm