Oct 24, 2007 / 08:15 am
An official with the UN HIV/AIDS Program has blamed the Catholic Church for not stopping the spread of the disease in Central America and dismissed the success of campaigns that promote abstinence.
Far from acknowledging the failure of the UN to stop the disease, Alberto Stella, UNAIDS coordinator for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, told the Reuters news agency that the Catholic Church’s opposition to condoms has worsened the AIDS epidemic in Latin America.
“In Latin America the use of the condom has been demonized, but if it was used during relations I guarantee the epidemic would be eliminated in the region,” Stella said.
“The fact that young people become sexually active between the ages of 15 and 19 without any sexual education contributes to the spread of the virus, and evidence shows that abstinence does not work,” he claimed.