Tell the truth about condom use - Counsellor

The Revered Dr. Benjamin Agyei Anom, Director of the Glory Family Counselling Centre,yesterday appealed to the Ghana AIDS Commission to educate Ghanaians on the dangers and failure rate of condom use so as to change the sexual behaviour of people.

The Commission should put pragmatic mechanisms in place to check the proliferation of condoms into the country to ensure that fake ones are not sold to customers.

Dr Anom told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra that there are so many difficulties and dangers attached to condom use, which the public has not been properly educated on. He said these have a negative impact on people particularly the youth who are vulnerable and gullible and need to know about the negative aspects of condoms to change their sexual life.

Dr Anom said research by the Glory Family Counselling Centre on HIV/AIDS and pregnancies, has revealed that 70 percent of teenage pregnancies is attributed to careless condom use. He described the situation as serious and a possible means of HIV/AIDS contraction.

Dr Anom criticised the Director of the Ghana AIDS Commission Professor Sakyi Amoa for appealing to religious groups and organisations to reconsider their decision on condom use without explaining the dangers attached to them.

He said at this crucial stage, what is needed is absolute abstinence and high quality condoms. "I wonder if people would agree to buy a quality condom at a very high price to protect them from contracting the disease?"

He said in South Africa, fake condoms entered the market about three years ago and when they were detected they were destroyed. He said the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic will continue to persist if people do not change their sexual habits and said as a nation there is the need to cherish the virtue of faithfulness and wait till marriage.

He appealed to the public, non-governmental organisations and other religious groups to use the World AIDS Day to vigorously continue with the campaign against the disease.