Tue, 12 Dec 2000

Condoms seem to have almost as many uses as bamboo

By Chris W. Green

JAKARTA (JP): The English call them "French Letters"; the French (it is said) call them "English Letters". The Americans call them "rubbers", the English word for an eraser (try asking an American secretary for a rubber!). In Indonesia , they have many names, including karet (rubber), sarung (sheath) and payung (umbrella). And of course the euphemists call them anything but their name: prophylactics, preventives, sheaths. But it as condoms (kondom in Indonesian) that they are best known.

Although there is a town in southwest France called Condom, this name appears to have other origins. In fact, condoms are thought to have been named after Colonel Condom, a British Guards officer, who in the early 18th century wanted to protect his men from venereal disease. But in fact their history goes back much further, to at least 1350 BC when barriers to prevent such disease were first mentioned. Their use as contraceptives was first documented in the 16th century.

The first condoms were probably made from animal intestines, and condoms made from lamb's intestines are still available. But such materials will not protect from all forms of disease, particularly HIV. Latex (natural rubber) overcomes this objection; it has been used for making condoms since the 1930s. More recently polyurethane condoms have become available, offering an alternative for the small number of people who develop an allergy to latex. But latex remains the most popular material for making condoms.

Although their role in preventing transmission of HIV has become increasingly serious, inevitably, given their function, they have been the subject of much ribaldry, most of which cannot be repeated here. It is said that during the Second World War, Russia asked assistance from Britain to provide emergency supplies of condoms, but specified that they should be suitable for well-endowed Russian men. Churchill, on hearing of this, is reported to have asked for the largest size to be provided, but that it should be marked "Small".

Condoms seem to have almost as many uses as bamboo. In India, officials are reported as saying that every year 450 million condoms, almost half of the number distributed, are used to plug radiator leaks in vehicles or are dyed and sold as balloons. The report did not note if this also referred to used condoms. Armies around the world provide condoms to slip over the muzzle of rifles to protect them from entry of sand or other matter in desert or jungle operations (or so they say!). And they are reported to have saved at least one life: following a shipwreck in Eastern Indonesia, one passenger found his toilet kit floating near him. Being well-prepared, he had a pair of Sutra condoms in that kit, which he inflated. Using them as "water wings", they stayed inflated long enough for him to be saved eight hours later.

Moralists will always find fault with condoms, and sometimes question their ability to prevent transmission of HIV. Although latex condoms have been proven over and over again to bar even the smallest viruses from passing through them, a noted professor of psychiatry from the University of Indonesia still maintains that even a ten-inch thick condom would still have pores in it which would allow transmission of disease. Not only is his assertion inaccurate -- there are no pores in any good quality condom, the idea of a half-meter diameter condom has given rise to much hilarity.

Since condoms also have a role in preventing disease transmission during oral sex, it is natural that manufacturers should produce condoms for this purpose, with rather more pleasant flavors than plain latex. Thus it is possible to obtain a variety of fruit-flavored and scented condoms, although one very high up member of the executive here has questioned why these are always temperate fruits. "Why are there no durian- flavored condoms?" she was reported to have asked.

Of course, the role played by condoms is really deadly serious. As a previous minister of health in Indonesia put it, "In the absence of a cure or a vaccine, condoms are the only response which public health has to AIDS." If used correctly and consistently, condoms would stop the sexually-transmitted AIDS epidemic in its tracks. Given that more than six million people around the world will die of the disease this year (and over 300 million will acquire sexually transmitted infections), that would be a huge success for such a lowly device.

-- The writer is an AIDS activist