New Finding: Condoms Prevent the Spread of HPV

The Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum attacked the Montgomery County sex education changes on two grounds. First, the new curriculum was neutral about homosexuality, when we all know it's a morally depraved perversion, and second, there was a video showing how to use a condom.

Their argument against condom use was, you could say, complicated. It depended on a lot of assumptions, and you had to believe their interpretation of the research, which concludes, in their telling of it, that condoms don't prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Of course, the rubber blocks the movement of bacteria and viruses as well as semen, but there are circumstances where an infection can still be passed from one person to another. Most of these circumstances arise from improper use of the condom, and of course that is a primary argument in favor of teaching the correct way to choose one and use it. Not that that kind of logic actually sinks in with that group.

The real ace up their sleeve was HPV. Human papillomavirus is a leading cause of cervical cancer, and most people are infected with it at some time in their lives. Here's the kicker: you can catch it even if the man is wearing a condom. That's because it spreads by any skin-to-skin contact with an infected body part. You can catch it shaking hands, even if the person you're shaking hands with is wearing a condom. (That's a creepy thought, isn't it?)

So the grand finale of any CRC talk on condoms, often drowned out by the roar of the crowd, was "Condoms do not prevent HPV!"

But looky here in this morning's paper:

CHICAGO – In a groundbreaking study that could influence the debate over sex education, researchers have found that consistent and proper use of condoms significantly reduces the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer.

University of Washington researchers will report today that female college students were 70 percent less likely to become infected with human papillomavirus, or HPV, if their partners always wore a condom during sex than those whose partners used condoms less than 5 percent of the time.

Condoms have long been touted as a barrier against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But advocates of sexual abstinence programs have argued that condoms are ineffective against HPV, which can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact even if a condom is worn. Condom use lowers HPV risk, study finds

I hate a news story like that. No researchers' names, nothing about the research. Well, it gets us started.

With the help of Google, we find the entire study, from the New England Journal of Medicine, right HERE. Here's the abstract:

Background To evaluate whether the use of male condoms reduces the risk of male-to-female transmission of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, longitudinal studies explicitly designed to evaluate the temporal relationship between condom use and HPV infection are needed.

Methods We followed 82 female university students who reported their first intercourse with a male partner either during the study period or within two weeks before enrollment. Cervical and vulvovaginal samples for HPV DNA testing and Papanicolaou testing were collected at gynecologic examinations every four months. Every two weeks, women used electronic diaries to record information about their daily sexual behavior. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to evaluate risk factors for HPV infection.

Results The incidence of genital HPV infection was 37.8 per 100 patient-years at risk among women whose partners used condoms for all instances of intercourse during the eight months before testing, as compared with 89.3 per 100 patient-years at risk in women whose partners used condoms less than 5 percent of the time (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 0.6, adjusted for the number of new partners and the number of previous partners of the male partner). Similar associations were observed when the analysis was restricted to high-risk and low-risk types of HPV and HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18. In women reporting 100 percent condom use by their partners, no cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions were detected in 32 patient-years at risk, whereas 14 incident lesions were detected during 97 patient-years at risk among women whose partners did not use condoms or used them less consistently.

Conclusions Among newly sexually active women, consistent condom use by their partners appears to reduce the risk of cervical and vulvovaginal HPV infection.

The Montgomery County school district is currently producing a new condom video. Hopefully they will be able to include this important new finding.