Photo Credit: supernovapro @ Flick

To prove that condoms don’t work, pro-life & anti condoms organisations such as The Illinois Family Institute often cite the case of two Asian countries with almost equal populations: Thailand (pop. 63,753,000) and the Philippines (pop. 88,351,000) and what they call “facts” about the two countries. It reads like that,

“Both countries saw their first cases of AIDS appear in 1984. Both embarked on campaigns to combat the threat and spread of this deadly disease. That’s where the similarity ends. The Philippine government educated its people and stressed the importance of chastity, fidelity in marriage and abstinence outside of marriage. Thailand, on the other hand, embraced “King Condom” and distributed massive numbers of condoms to its people, without any attempt to change people’s behaviour.

Here are the results. As of 2007, there have been a total of 2,965 individuals infected with AIDS in the Philippines, over 23 years! In Thailand, the number is a shocking 1,106,000! In other words, one out of every 21,850 Filipinos have become infected with AIDS – one of every 90 individuals in Thailand are infected.”

Facts? Let’s have a closer look.

Both country saw their first cases of AIDS in 1984, but here ends the similarities. There are several differences both cultural and social between Thailand and The Philippines, most importantly in the way these two countries have dealt with the rising epidemics in the 90s at a time when appropriate action would make all the difference. When HIV arrived in the Philippines, it was to meet a soil much less propitious to its dissemination.

Amongst the cultural differences the most important one is that Filipino men are circumcised whilst Thai men are not. Recent studies have shown that circumcision reduces the risk of being infected by HIV by up to 50%.

Whilst in the late 80s the epidemic fired up amongst drug users and sex workers in Thailand, the position of the Thai government was that it was only a disease that affected foreigners and that Thai shouldn’t worry . A government official is often quoted saying that “The general public need not be alarmed. Thai-to-Thai transmission is not in evidence.”

In contrast, in The Philippines the epidemics did not catch up, in particular amongst sex workers because early efforts to screen and treat sex workers since the early 1990s when Philippines approach the epidemics with more sense and less jingoism. Not only sex workers were screened and tested for HIV but also for other sexually transmitted diseases which have been associated with increased risks of HIV infection. Remember that to enter the body, the virus needs to go through the wall of cells that line up the inside of the vagina. Any other infection that may damage this wall will increase the chance of the HIV virus to pass through and enter the blood stream. By addressing these STD, and by providing treatment to HIV infected people, the viral load is kept at a low level and the risk of infection is reduced, even without condom.

What about the suggestion that Filipinos know more about HIV than Thai? In 2008 USAID reports that “approximately two-thirds of young women lack comprehensive knowledge on HIV transmission, and 90 percent of the population of reproductive age believe you can contract HIV by sharing a meal with someone”.

And did condoms failed in Thailand? Thanks to the “Condom King” (Senator Mechai Viravaidya) and its ‘100% condom’ program in brothels and national awareness campaigns, by the end of 2005, national HIV prevalence was 1.4%, down from 1.8% in 2003 and more than 2% a decade earlier.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, HIV prevalence is on the increase, slowly but surely.

Finally, pro-life and other anti-condoms lobbyists, Christian fundamentalists and their ilk, wants us to believe that abstinence has been doing, is doing and will be doing miracle. They want us to believe that Filipino men go back home after work and enjoy a cold beer watching TV with their wife whilst heterosexual intercourse accounts for the majority (61 percent) of the Philippines’ reported /AIDS cases. They want us to ignore the 1993-4 estimated number of sex workers that range between 100,000 and 600,000 (by comparison, in profane Thailand the estimated number of sex workers in 1997 was only 200,000 to 300,000) whose work account for anywhere between 2 and 14 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (ILO 1998 report). A difference that also lead to a lower number of customers for Filipino sex workers compared to Thai sex workers.

They simply want us to believe that abstinence did it.

Who are they kidding?

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