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The Next Generation of Condom
Posted on Dec 12, 2013 by Ailee Slater (G+)
Condoms are an impressive health care tool. They are cheap, easy to manufacture and highly effective at preventing disease and unwanted pregnancy. Consistent use of condoms can protect sexually active adults from infections such as gonorrhea and HIV, as well as HPV and syphilis to a slightly lesser extent. For women, condoms offer not only defense from STIs but also an easy method of controlling maternal health and family planning.
But, despite condoms’ many benefits to health, their use is neither frequent nor consistent. Around the world, in nations both developed and developing, a huge number of men and women do not use condoms – due to stigma, lack of incentive at the moment of intercourse, and comfort or pleasure issues.
Health care educators have been attempting for years to overcome these barriers to condom use, through education and awareness campaigns. Teachers explain the benefits of condoms to students, health workers distribute the product to HIV at-risk populations, and TV ads broadcast the benefits of birth control. Condom campaigns have changed throughout the years to appeal to new cultures and generations, and the only thing that hasn’t changed is the product itself – until now.
In March 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenged health researchers and scientists to develop the Next Generation of Condom; offering the potential for a $1 million grant to any research team that can make condoms easier or more pleasurable to use, while maintaining the impressive health advantages that the condom offers.
Eight hundred and twelve entries were submitted to the Next Generation of Condom challenge; all of which hypothesized different ways to overcome cultural, personal or structural barriers in order to make the condom more usable or appealing. Of those applicants, 11 finalists were chosen last month – each of whom will receive $100,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. With that money, the winning research teams must in the next year and a half prove that their Next Generation Condoms are functional, safe, and can be mass produced. Any proposal that can do so will receive another $1 million for production and intensive clinical trials.
The 11 winning proposals selected in November included ideas from health researchers around the world. The group HLL Lifecare Ltd. in India suggested a condom that would be both safer and more pleasurable to the wearer. By incorporating grapheme – a strong, elastic form of carbon – into production materials, Lifecare researchers proposed that the resulting condoms would be sturdier and yet thinner than current latex models.
Another intriguing proposal centered around meat: using the collagen-rich tendons of cows to create condoms with a skin-like texture. The final condom would look like the casing of a sausage, and offer wearers a comfortable, natural-feeling fit. Materials could be sourced from meat production, and Apex Medical Technologies – the primary investigator of the proposal – say that the condom could be produced in such a way as to ensure that the fibers act as a complete barrier to any exchange of fluids during intercourse.
Rather than focus on changing the condom itself, the group Kimbranox Ltd. in South Africa proposed the development of an easier, safer way to put a condom on. The condom applicator, as designed by Kimbranox Ltd., would be integrated into the packaging of every individual condom and allow men to don a condom in one simple motion. These South African researchers theorize that easier condom application will encourage condom practice, and minimize the chance of condom breakage or incorrect usage which could lead to pregnancy or infection, or even a disease such as HIV.
Indeed, medical statistics show the huge impact that condoms can have upon diseases, HIV in particular, when used consistently and correctly. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as gonorrhea and chlamydia pass from one person to another through infected secretions and mucous; condoms all but eliminate the risk of these STIs. HIV is another infection that is easily transferable between two sexual partners, and yet also easily preventable with condom use. Most studies agree that condom use reduces the risk of contracting HIV by 80 to 90 percent, and possibly more when the condom is used correctly and during every instance of intercourse.
Seeing as an estimated 1.7 million people die from AIDS-related conditions every year, a new generation of condom could indeed bring about important advances in health care. A new design of condom might also be beneficial to women’s health, in that better condoms mean a better chance of family planning and self-directed maternal health choices. Both women and men in rural areas of developing countries will often prefer to have a smaller family, in order to better distribute nutrition and monetary resources amongst their children and themselves. Condoms are one way to help families stay small, and therefore support the education and medical care of children and parents. Reducing fertility can encourage women in particular to seek education and employment, and the use of a birth control method such as condoms is of the utmost importance to a woman who is unable to safely give birth to more children, but remains sexually active.
Clearly, the case for improving condom use is strong. The gloomy statistics of AIDS and other diseases are a testament to the fact that current condom design and education must change. Will the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Next Generation Condom Challenge lead to a viable product and better health around the world? It’s not a certainty, but it’s certainly a possibility.