I REFER to last Thursday's letter, 'Women's group can help teens on sexuality', by Ms Mathangi Kumar.

I agree with her that sexuality education needs to be 'holistic'. Yet, I am concerned about the promotion and use of the term 'safe sex' in the programmes groups such as the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware).

Experts tend to avoid the term 'safe sex' to refer to sex using the condom, because they acknowledge that it does not give 100per cent protection against the various sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

'Safer sex' is now the preferred term.

A Cochrane Review on health care concluded that, with consistent use, condoms are about 80 per cent effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection.

The June 2004 Bulletin of the World Health Organisation noted that with consistent use of the condom, the risk of contracting gonorrhoea was reduced by about 62per cent, and that for chlamydia infection, by only about 26per cent.

Such limited extent of risk reduction is far from being acceptable.

The effectiveness of the condom can be further compromised by the fact that condom breakage and slippage are not uncommon.

A study published in the May 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal revealed that condom slippage was experienced by up to 33per cent of the teens who had used these; and condom breakage, by up to 25 per cent.

Studies have also shown that teenagers are relatively poor users of contraceptives.

There are many reasons why some teens engage in risky sexual behaviour. These include factors such as peer pressure, negative influence of some mass media, poor self-esteem, and poor parent-child relationships.

These should be considered in the design of any sexuality programme that is aimed at our young. It is our duty to provide them with the correct information, so that they can make the right decisions for themselves.

Dr John Hui Keem Peng