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Some experts have questioned the wisdom of promoting condoms as protection against sexually transmitted diseases, especially AIDS, given their presumed high failure rate. Richters and colleagues, in a letter to the Lancet, report that the breakage rate of condoms is actually quite low, at least when used during sexual encounters in brothels. They studied one female and two male brothels in Australia for four months. Prostitutes recorded the number of condoms used each day and, when they broke, the specifics of the sexual encounter. Overall, eight of a total of 1269 condoms broke; three (0.5 percent) of 664 used for anal intercourse and five (0.8 percent) of 605 used for vaginal intercourse.
The authors comment that this low breakage rate (co…