The Gold Standard | A condom of our own

Philadelphia — the site of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Home to the Liberty Bell and the acclaimed Rocky art museum steps. The playground of famed restaurateur Stephen Starr.

Soon to be added to that list: Philadelphia — the city with its very own, specially designed condom, complete with a unique logo.

Yes, you read me right. The Philadelphia condom is arriving, adding another layer of uniqueness to the City of Brotherly Love. No pun intended, of course.

Philadelphia’s own prophylactic couldn’t have come at a better time. Incidents of sexually transmitted diseases have been on the rise in the city. The city’s rates of sexually transmitted diseases are among the highest in the country. HIV rates in Philadelphia are five times the rate nationwide, according to data from the Philadelphia Health Department. Philadelphia residents are 40 times more likely to contract syphilis than other Pennsylvanians, six times more likely to contract gonorrhea and five times more likely to contract chlamydia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that there has also been a recent spike in HIV contractions among young people 13 to 24 years old in Philadelphia. Nationwide, half of all new HIV infections occur in young people under the age of 25, according to the Children’s Hospital to Philadelphia.

These statistics make the introduction of the Philadelphia condom — which will be made freely available to those who sign up on the distribution list — a necessary and relatively cheap measure to ramp up STD prevention.

The widespread distribution of the Philadelphia condom will “help us impact the high rates of HIV and STDs in our city — especially among our youth,” said Donald Schwarz, health commissioner and deputy mayor for Health and Opportunity, in a statement.

Philadelphia is not the first city to introduce its own line of genital apparel. In 2009, New York was the first city in the country to produce such a condom.

Even more compellingly, Philadelphia has been painfully slow in condom distribution, perhaps exacerbating the rate of disease transmission and rendering the availability of the condom that much more important. New York — which has experimented rather successfully with a Big Apple condom campaign, including television spots and new media outreach — distributed approximately 41 million condoms last year alone. Philadelphia? A paltry 1.5 million.

New York has further experimented with ideas to increase condom accessibility. It recently previewed a “GPS Condom Finder” iPhone application that will direct you to the nearest free condom distribution location — by car, foot or public transportation — within the city.

College junior Erik O. explained the need for the increased availability of free condoms in Philadelphia. “I’m never short on condoms,” he said. “I prefer Trojan Magnums. However, they tend to be somewhat expensive, and the costs add up pretty quickly … A costless alternative would definitely free up a little cash and make purchasing protection less of a chore.”

Condom distribution has benefits other than preventing STDs. A planned Philadelphia condom distribution kickoff will raise awareness of the dangers of unprotected sexual intercourse.

Philadelphia has come a long way to get to the precipice of mass condom dispersion. Only 19 years ago, the idea of freely distributing condoms in high schools was a lightning-rod topic. In 1991, it took a contentious debate to merely give students the ability to pick up prophylactics in school. Now Philadelphia has appropriately moved to a citywide condom program that will hopefully stem the growing rate of STDs.

So let’s applaud the city for finally taking a forceful step to prevent an occurrence that all of us — I’m sure — truly wish to avoid. Before journeying to “pleasure town” — coined by Will Ferrell in the timeless Anchorman — make sure you bring a specially designed Philadelphia “life jacket” with you for the ride.

Brian Goldman is a College junior from Queens, N.Y. His e-mail address is goldman@theDP.com. The Gold Standard appears every Monday.

This column was updated to remove Erik’s last name given the sensitive nature of the comment.

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