Subject: Promotion of Condom Use Is Seen Limiting Diseases
Date: Published: 6/23/92 (34 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Technology:
    Promotion of Condom Use
    Is Seen Limiting Diseases

    The World Health Organization said creative promotion of
 condom use around the globe is making modest but measurable
 gains against the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and
 AIDS.  
    From Thailand to Zaire, national projects showed "there
 was not only an increase in condom use, but either a decrease
 in prevalence of STDs or new infections with human
 immunodeficiency virus," said Michael Merson, director of
 WHO's Global Program on AIDS.  WHO is based in Geneva.
    In Switzerland, Dr. Merson said a campaign to "STOP SIDA"
 (the local acronym for AIDS) featured a rolled condom as the
 letter "O" in STOP. The campaign boosted to 52% from 8% the
 numbers of young men who said they always used the
 prophylactics.
    Moreover, Dr. Merson said, "There was no religious
 backlash, and no increase in promiscuity."
    In Zaire, the U. S. Agency for International Development
 donated condoms to local vendors.  Sales of the prophylactics,
 sold under the brand name Prudence, soared to 18 million in
 1991 from 100,000 in 1987.  Dr. Merson said he didn't know if
 some condoms had been diverted into a black market.

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