AboutTerry B Expertise Help in assessing personal and professional risk of HIV transmission; tips in teaching about HIV/AIDS; cultural competency for teaching about HIV/AIDS in Catholic settings; considerations in US and overseas HIV/AIDS programs and education for health and other professionals. Specific questions about treatment should be referred to your health provider; opinions and information offered are not meant to replace medical advice
Experience Seven years with academic medical center and national AIDS education and training center, seven subsequent years with focus on international HIV/AIDS in East and South Africa. Former clinician, bioethics preceptor at an academic medical center and presenter in wide range of fora including international AIDS conference.
Organizations Disabled American Veterans
American Public Health Association
MENSA
AA
Publications Human Variety, EC Sociological Society
Proceedings of the International AIDS Conference, Durban, South Africa
"HIV and Primary Care"
Education/Credentials BS Psychology
MPH Master of Public Health
PhD studies underway
Awards and Honors Naval School of Health Sciences, Hospital Corps with Highest Honors, Neuropsychiatry with Honors and High Distinction
Expert: Terry B Date: 3/4/2008 Subject: The truth of condom use
Question Hi, I want to know if thereīs a risk even if a condom is property used. If I use a condom and have no exposure of another person fluid, itīs never broken, I use water based gel, etc. Can I say is a risk free situation?
Thanks for your answer.
Answer Dear Joaquin:
Peace.
There are a lot of ways to talk about risk, and in providing prevention education, I find relative risk the easiest way to address a broad range of behaviors and situations with which I have become familiar. If you will go through this column, you will find stories of people who did have condoms break, slip off, or otherwise have unanticipated exposures. When you are engaging in sexual behavior, you are in extremely close proximity to the semen, blood, or vaginal secretions of a person infected. Condoms reduce (and in some cases eliminate) contact with these fluids, but the risk - however small - persists because of that proximity.
The physics of insertive and receptive sex, the fact that sexual activity often occurs at a time when passion may overrule judgement, news stories of defective condoms, the presence of undiagnosed sexually transmitted infections - all of these contribute to some degree of risk, however small.
