February 5, 2009

Study: South Africa’s Condom Distribution Laws Are Confusing

The South African government is enacting condom distribution laws in order to reduce the country’s HIV infection rate—the highest in the world. But a new study published in the online journal PLoS Medicine finds that the laws are creating confusion among parents, educators and health officials, Voice of America News reports.

According to the article, one recent South African law permits adolescents as young as 12 to obtain condoms and punishes schools and institutions that refuse to distribute them. These two rules may seem to complement each other. However, Harvard University law student Juliana Han points out that many South Africans find the laws confusing, which she attributes to widespread misunderstanding of what HIV is and how condoms prevent transmission.

“There are a lot of people who say…providing condoms will send the message to youth that we want them to be promiscuous, or it will encourage them to be so,” says Han, who conducted her research in the South African state of KwaZulu-Natal while working with a nongovernmental organization called Mpilonhle, which means “a good life.” “[This is] very much against a lot of the conservative tribal beliefs that are very strong in both the parents and the kids…. And on the other side, the communities that we talked to were very aware of the health threat.”

Han suggests that the government clarify its laws and invest additional resources in educating community members about HIV, which she says is more likely to happen under South Africa’s new minister of health.

Search: South Africa, condom distribution, KwaZulu-Natal

Scroll down to comment on this story.

Previous Comments: