Japan AIDS rate rises

"In a nation that has excellent healthcare and widespread condom use, many in Japan's health community are wondering why the disease is growing so rapidly..." - taken from a Health section article of The Express-Times Lehigh Valley edition.

This one's a no brainer: Condom use does little to prevent the spread of AIDS. Let's start off with a little basic science, shall we? Back in the early 1990s, a study was done to find out the effectiveness of condoms. Researchers found little pores that naturally occur in latex when it was produced. Industrial latex gloves had 1 micron wide holes. A condom, because it is used to prevent pregnancy, had holes that were 5 microns wide. The average diameter of a sperm's head is 3-5 microns (for those in the know, that's where the 97% effectiveness comes in). HIV's size is 0.1 microns and is both an intracellular virus and a free floating virus. Only in recent years did condom manufacturers try to heighten their standards by doing things like double dipping the latex to make the condom stronger. Quality checks showed better results than before and latex for condoms are better than industrial gloves now. Then again, only a few condom companies in America have those standards. And, by the time a shipment of condoms arrives at a retailer, most of the time the integrity of the latex breaks down because the transport standards aren't strict. Then the chances for breakage increase. At least that problem can be easily fixed. There are many other factors involved in the spread of AIDS like drug-use, inconsistency of condom usage, and other types of sexual activity like oral sex. Simply put, anytime there is an exchange of bodily fluid, there is the possibility to spread the virus. Sexually irresponsible people spread well-established lies about the benefits of condom use in AIDS prevention and are the most likely to spread the disease as well. They are also the same people who are the most active in complaining about the lack of research into the cure for AIDS. From studies done over the years, when a person with HIV has sex with someone without HIV, it only takes a year and a half of occasional sex until that partner is infected. And it takes AT LEAST 3-6 months for a person to be HIV positive, but USUALLY it will take close to two years before someone will truly know, that is if the person periodically gets a check up. The emphasis on condom usage with only little emphasis on abstinence and fidelity only encourages more sex and greater AIDS spread. If permission to have sex is granted with one exception, people tend to make that exception an option rather than a rule. Controlling behavior on the other hand by shocking people with information about consequences curtails rampant sex and decreases the odds for AIDS to spread. It's not about forcing people not to have sex, but giving people information about the results of uncontrolled sexual activity, thereby allowing them to make a thoughtful decision. So that should be simple enough to answer the question. The next entry will have specific evidence on what I just stated.