Condoms

Condoms and HIV

How much protection do condoms provide when it comes to HIV?

Let’s say that Suzy is HIV-negative and her husband, Bob, is HIV-positive.

If Suzy and Bob have sex for one year without using condoms, Suzy has a 7% chance of becoming infected with HIV within one year. 

If Suzy and Bob have sex for one year using condoms 100% of the time, Suzy has a 1% chance of becoming infected within a year.

In other words, condoms reduce Suzy’s risk of HIV-infection by 85%.1

 

Related topics:
Read more about HIV and other STDs

 

Footnotes:

  1. The Medical Institute, "Risk & Relative Risk ," n.d. Retrieved Jan. 2007 from http://www.medinstitute.org/content.php?name=riskandrelativerisk.

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