Condoms
There is no medical excuse for anyone not wearing a condom, especially because there are latex-free condoms available. Reuters

Friday is International Condom Day. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, or AHF -- creator of the Love Condoms campaign -- has marked the eve of Valentine’s Day as International Condom Day for years to promote safe sex in an attempt to cut the risk of transmitting AIDS.

The Love Condoms campaign creator wants to encourage people to consistently use condoms so they can protect themselves and their partners, and it would like them to have easy access to free or low-cost condoms. It contends there is a need for condoms to be demanded worldwide.

“Each year, AHF and its partners commemorate the International Condom Day on February 13 with Love Condoms events ranging from a march in the sunny Mombasa, Kenya, to a public outreach on the snowy streets of Tallinn, Estonia,” the organization says on its online site. “Since the inception of the Love Condom campaign in 2008, AHF-branded Love Condoms have gained great popularity among millions of people across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.”

In observance of International Condom Day, here a handful of relevant facts, compiled by Planned Parenthood:

  1. Condom use dates back 12,000-15,000 years.
  2. Seventy-five percent of people in relationships do not use condoms during vaginal intercourse.
  3. There is no medical excuse for anyone not wearing a condom, especially because there are latex-free condoms available.
  4. Using condoms makes sex 10,000 times safer when the AIDS precursor human immunodeficiency virus is a concern.
  5. The condom is one of the most affordable and easily accessible types of birth control.

Now that you know some facts about condoms and International Condom Day, what better way to celebrate your newly acquired knowledge than with free condoms? Condom USA offers free samples, but they cannot be ordered online: Netizens are instructed to call customer service. In addition, individual states such as California and cities such as New York have more information about how people can request free condoms.

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella