The Pope has outraged many in the international AIDS prevention community on a recent visit to Africa with the bold claim that HIV:

'Cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem.'

The president of the International AIDS Society labelled the Pope's words as 'irresponsible and dangerous' and many have called for a retraction of the statement.

However, there are some experts who have, at least in part, supported the Pope's stance. This is not due to their own moral objection to contraception but because of evidence from areas like Uganda - where the HIV prevention campaign slogan was 'Zero grazing' to emphasise the importance of fewer sexual partners - showing greater success in reducing the spread of the virus than the distribution of condoms alone. Edward Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Center at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies said:

'We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates.'

This does not, however, indicate that condom uses increases the infection rates of HIV. One school of thought that does suggest that condoms may 'increase the problem' is that condom use encourages more risky sexual behaviour and thus an increase in the likelihood of infection transmission; a second theory is that condoms are not a barrier to viruses, since viruses may be able to pass through pores in the latex structure.

Whatever the truth it seems many groups working in HIV prevention feel the Pope has been rather insensitive in his comments; yet his comments do not appear to be entirely unsubstantiated. (bbc.co.uk 2009; 17 March, timesonline.co.uk 2009; 17 March, timesonline.co.uk 2009; 27 March, The Lancet 2009; 373(9669):1054)