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Nearly half (49 percent) of the British public don’t always use a condom when with a new sexual partner, according to the Ipsos MORI survey conducted for the National AIDS Trust. In National Condom Week the National AIDS Trust is calling for new culture of condom use in the UK.
Where condoms are used by people who have had a new sexual partner within the last two years, the survey asked ‘When with a new sexual partner, at what point, if at all, would you stop using condoms?’
The good news is that
a quarter (24 per cent) of people who have had a new sexual partner within the last two years say they would only stop using a condom once they and their partner have both been tested for HIV and other STIs, the one guaranteed way of knowing the state of your and your partner’s sexual health
and a further 17 per cent say they would always use a condom.
The bad news is that
this leaves over half (53 percent) of people who have had a new sexual partner within the last two years who put themselves at risk of sexually transmitted infection when they stop using condoms in a relationship1.
The survey also reveals disturbing gaps in knowledge of the importance of condoms in preventing HIV transmission during sex. One in five (21 per cent) failed to identify that HIV can be transmitted between a man and a woman who don’t use a condom and over a quarter (26 per cent) failed to identify that HIV can be transmitted between two men who don’t use a condom2.
Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of the National AIDS Trust, said:
“In National Condom Week the British public need a wake-up call on condom use. Too many people don’t know the basic facts on how condoms prevent a sexually transmitted infection such as HIV.
Too many people are inconsistent in how they use condoms and too many people give up on condoms in a relationship without a health check-up, thus possibly harming their health or that of their sexual partner. We need to educate the whole population in the importance of condoms.”
The National AIDS Trust is calling on the Government to introduce;
condom use as an essential part of comprehensive, compulsory sex and relationships education in all schools
condom advertising on TV and radio before the 9 o’clock watershed
Deborah Jack continues:
“The message is simple. ‘Use condoms. And enjoy your safer sex life.’”