Daphne Bottos says everyone should play Russian roulette. Why do I say that? In the Oct. 23 article, she wrote that “protecting yourself” by wearing a condom is “what everyone should be doing.”According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is the governmental authority on sexually transmitted diseases, proper condom use does not eliminate the risk of contracting AIDS. In one study done in Europe of “discordant couples” where one member of the couple is infected with the disease and the other is not, three partners were infected out of 171 couples (two percent) who reported using condoms consistently over the two year period studied. This relates to only 16 partners becoming infected out of the 134 couples (12 percent) who did not use condoms at all over the same two-year period.Another study, which is found in the July-August 1992 issue of “STD,” shows that glass beads, which are inflexible, and that are the size of the STD virus, can pass through a condom under simulated conditions. The CDC also quotes a study in which about two out of every 100 condoms break during use. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports an additional two-fold to five-fold risk of AIDS infection among people who have others STDs.The U.S. has the highest rates of STDs in the industrial world. Add that to the leakage risk, and you realize that sex with a condom is not safe. While the risk is reduced, it is not safe sex if you think that you have no risk of becoming infected with the AIDS virus. So go ahead and just take a few bullets out of that gun and practice safe…errr…Roulette Sex.
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