Study Highlights HPV Risk
by AFA Journal
September 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A new study provides a grim reminder of the potential cost of sexual promiscuity. Epidemiologist Rachel Winer of the University of Washington School of Public Health found that, even when women used condoms 100 percent of the time, nearly 30 percent of the women contracted the human papilloma virus (HPV) -- one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among American college students. (Read the study report [PDF])
For a number of years, those who promote abstinence until marriage have been warning of the dangers of contracting HPV, which causes cervical cancer. Because the virus does not reside merely in the genital area, they say that condoms do not offer sufficient protection against the disease.
But in a strange twist, those who support condom-based sex education actually touted the study results as validation for their approach. According to William Beckman, executive director of the Illinois Right to Life Committee, some promoters of "safer sex" claimed the study demonstrated that condoms provided protection against HPV 70 percent of the time.
"Why isn't the fact that condoms, even under ideal usage conditions, failed 28.5 percent of the time the real story here?" Beckman asked. "Who would consider this an acceptable failure rate when dealing with a cancer-causing virus?"
Evidently one researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is among those who find it acceptable. He told ABC News that Winer's is "the first study to nail home the point that condoms prevent against HPV transmission." And a marketing official with a major condom manufacturer says his company applauds the study, saying that those who choose to be sexually active "need to be reminded that consistent and correct condom use protects against STDs."
It could be argued that the study reflects the sexual pressures so prevalent in today's youth culture as well as the justifiable concern about the epidemic of STDs among young people. Winer's research tracked the sexual activity of 82 young female students (ages 18-22) at the University of Washington who claimed not to have been sexually active until at least two weeks prior to enrollment in the survey. Over the testing period, the students used online "electronic diaries" to report their daily sexual behavior and condom use, and were tested for HPV infection every four months.
Read related article at LifeSiteNews.com
The majority of this article, printed with permission, appears in the September 2006 issue of AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.