Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Brazil’s Ministry of Health announced it will distribute 10 million condoms during the annual Carnivals as part of a controversial campaign called “Nothing passes through a condom” in various cities throughout the country. The Ministry of Health, headed up by Humberto Costa, began the deceptive campaign whose supposed objective is “to fight against AIDS and other illnesses” by omitting recent studies which show that the HIV virus leads all other sexually transmitted diseases in its ability to infect despite the use of condoms.
The campaign, which uses the phrase “Have faith in it, use a condom” as its slogan, has been launched with a series of radio adds, and television adds showing a fish swimming in a condom and a man filling a condom with beer to test its durability.
In spite of the pro-condom campaign, Costa admitted that according to a study last year, 15% of sexually active Brazilians do not believe condoms can prevent diseases.