by LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer, March 11 2004
The
Bush administration is considering requiring warning labels on condom
packages noting that the contraceptive devices do not protect users
from all sexually transmitted diseases, a Food and Drug Administration
(news - web sites) official said Thursday.
Most
recent studies indicate condoms do not safeguard against human
papillomavirus, or HPV, a little-known but widespread sexually
transmitted disease that, untreated, can cause genital warts or
cervical cancer.
The findings were based on telephone surveys
of 1,000 young people, ages 12 to 19, and 1,000 adults 20 years and
older. It was conducted in August and September by International
Communications Research, an independent research firm. The margin of
error in the survey was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The
FDA "has developed a regulatory plan to provider condom users with a
consistent labeling message and the protection they should expect from
condom use," said Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the agency's
Office of Device Evaluation.
The agency "is preparing new
guidance on condom labeling to address these issues," Schultz told
members of a House Government Reform subcommittee.
The FDA has
considered warning labels since 2000, when President Clinton (news -
web sites) directed the agency to re-examine whether information
included in packages accurately reflected condom effectiveness in
preventing all sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV.
But
some lawmakers feared that such labels could turn people away from
using condoms, thereby increasing the risk of contracting diseases such
as AIDS (news - web sites), chlamydia and gonorrhea.
"Anything
that undermines the effectiveness of condoms for these uses will have
serious public health consequences," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
"Are condoms perfect? Of course not. But reality requires us not to
make a public health strategy against protection, but rather to ask a
key question: compared to what?"
Some lawmakers "insist that
abstinence-only education is the solution to teen pregnancy and
sexually transmitted diseases because abstinence works each time,"
Waxman said. "Well, the evidence, however, indicates that
abstinence-only education works rarely, if at all."
Responded
Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va.: "This is not about social ideology, or
religious ideology. It's about informing women. ... And truly, the only
way to be protected is abstinence. That's not ideology - it's fact."
The
White House wants to double, to $270 million, federal spending on
education programs to convince young people that abstinence is the only
certain way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. But
an independent report for the government two years ago indicated that
no reliable evidence exists that abstinence programs work.
More
than 2 million American women are infected with HPV each year, said Dr.
Ed Thompson, deputy director for public health services at the Centers
for Disease Control. Ten thousand women are diagnosed annually with
cervical cancer, claiming 4,000 lives, Thompson said.
