.                            CONDOMS STOP AIDS VIRUS
.                              Uploaded by Bob K.
.
.       Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco,
recently proved in laboratory tests that condoms can stop the AIDS
virus. The virus cannot penetrate the condom material of either latex
or natural skin condoms unless the condoms are ruptured.
 
 
The USCF condom study was commissioned by the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation and was carried out by well-known AIDS researchers Dr.
Marcus Conant, Associate Professor of Dermatology and Dr. Jay Levy,
virologist and pioneer researcher on the AIDS associated retrovirus.
The findings were made public in a press conference held in San
Francisco on December 17, 1985.
The AIDS condom study was patterned after a study conducted by Dr.
Conant in 1983 which demonstrated that the herpes virus could not pass
through condoms. Five brands of commercially available condoms,
purchased at a local drug store (three were made of latex, one of
natural lamb skin and one of synthetic skin) were tested in Dr. Levy's
USCF laboratory.
-More-
Approximately a teaspoon of fluid containing high concentration of
live AIDS viruses was pumped under pressure into each condom. The
outside of the condoms were then dipped into a virus-free culture fluid
for 30 minutes, and the culture fluid was tested continually over a
three-week period. No viruses were present in the culture fluid even
after this extensive testing period. The condoms, as expected,
completely stopped the passage of AIDS viruses.
"The data confirm our long standing Safe Sex Guide-lines," state
Tim Wolfred, Executive Director of the AIDS Foundation. The Foundation
has for some time promoted the use of condoms to prevent
AIDS-transmission, based on previous tests which proved condoms could
stop herpes simplex, gonorrhea, syphilis and CMV. According to Jackson
Peyton, the Foundation's Education Director, "We now have the
scientific evidence that condoms prevent AIDS-transmission as well as
prevent other sexually-transmitted diseases."
In a new series of ads for the San Francisco gay press, the SFAF is
warning that unprotected anal sex is the chief cause of AIDS
transmission in America, and that condoms are essential for the safety
of anal sex. Condoms are also being recommended for oral sex.
--- TBBS v2.0
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