VATICAN CITY, Oct 13 (AFP) - Condom packages should carry a health warning similar to that printed on cigarette packets, a Roman Catholic cardinal suggested Monday.
The idea was put forward by Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo in reply to questions about his statements in a BBC television programme that condoms were not a guarantee against catching HIV/AIDS and to say the opposite amounted to "Russian roulette".
"I propose that the ministries of health require the inclusion in condom packages and advertisements, and in the apparatus or shelves where they are displayed, a warning, that the condom is not safe," Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Council for the Family, said in a written answer to AFP's questions.
"This has been done since some time ago with cigarettes, saying that the filter does not guarantee protection."
Asked about the controversy prompted by his statement that "the Church advises against people infected with HIV wearing contraceptives", the cardinal said: "In the one-hour interview I gave to BBC on different questions regarding family and life, one question was dedicated to the theme of 'safe sex'.
"I affirmed the following: one cannot really speak of 'safe sex', leading people to believe that the use of condoms is the formula to avoid the risk of HIV and thus to overcome the AIDS pandemic. Nor should people be led to believe that condoms provide absolute safety."
He said he was anxious not to mislead people, especially the young, by making them think that there was safety where it was not proved to exist.
"I simply wished to remind the public, sustaining the opinion of a good number of experts, that when the condom is employed as a contraceptive, it is not totally dependable, and that the cases of pregnancy is not rare," Trujillo said.
"In the case of the AIDS virus, which is around 450 times smaller than the sperm cell, the condom's latex material obviously gives much less security. Some studies reveal permeability of condoms in 15 percent or even up to 20 percent of cases."
He added: "Thus, to talk of condom as 'safe sex' is a form of Russian roulette! And this is even without considering other possible reasons for condom failure, such as degradation of latex due to exposure to sunlight and heat, rupture and breakdown."
The Roman Catholic Church is deeply opposed to artificial contraception.
Experts from the World Health Organisation have said that the Church's claims are wrong and that condoms are 90 percent effective in preventing the transmission of HIV: in the other 10 percent of cases the condom was used improperly, broke, slipped or had passed its use-by date.
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