For example, the FDA water test can detect holes only as small as 5 mm, but this sized hole is many times the size of sexually-transmitted viruses and even of the bacterium Chylamidia . Similarly, the airburst test is insensitive to small holes. That is, these models have serious limitations when considering condoms as barriers to infectious disease. Newer models are being tried. Here again, however, further levels of models are used.
Some tests use the sexually-transmitted pathogen itself, which is the best model of a pathogen.
But those tests are expensive because they require special facilities for working with pathogens. Perhaps the most realistic model of condom barriers against sexually-transmitted diseases is provided by the Mariposa Foundation. All rights reserved. James J. Bull and Craig M. Pease.