A group of Uk schoolchildren has won an award for a conceptual condom layout that would change colour when it comes into contact with a sexually transmitted infection.
Daanyaal Ali, Muaz Nawaz and Chirag Shah – all below the age of 15 – proposed a condom embedded with chemical indicators that would react to bacteria that brings about infections this kind of as chlamydia and syphilis.
When a specific bacterial strain is detected, the condom would change colour to warn these at threat of the threat.
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are passed from 1 individual to one more by means of unprotected intercourse or genital make contact with. Official figures from Public Overall health England showed that nearly 440,000 men and women were diagnosed with an STI in the country in 2014.
The group of students from Isaac Newton Academy in Ilford, Essex, came up with their S.T.EYE condom to assist reduce the amount of circumstances.
“We developed the S.T.EYE as a new way for STI detection to aid the future of the subsequent generation,” explained Ali in a statement.
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“We wished to make something that made detecting dangerous STIs safer than ever before, so that men and women can consider fast action in the privacy of their own properties without the often-scary procedures at the doctors. We have created confident we’re capable to give peace of mind to consumers and allow people act even more responsibly than ever prior to.”
Ali, Nawaz and Shah won the healthcare group and a £1,000 prize at this year’s TeenTech Awards for the S.T.EYE notion. The trio has reportedly been approached by a condom manufacturer interested in the idea.
Despite the fact that the schoolchildren have not gone into detail about how condoms would modify colour, chemists have previously produced biosensors that alter colour when bacteria is detected in water samples and discovered nanoparticles that fluoresce when multiplying bacteria are existing.
The latex condom was initial introduced in the 1920s, when it surpassed the hand-dipped rubber sheathes used previously because it was both easier to generate and a lot more comfortable to dress in.
It is now thought that combining latex with new ultra-thin materials graphene could produce condoms that are “thinner, more powerful, safer and a lot more pleasurable”, according to scientists doing work with the carbon-based mostly materials.
Designers have come up with a variety of other suggestions for strengthening contraception, like a condom wrapper that can be opened with a straightforward finger-clicking action and an open-supply, intrauterine device created making use of a one particular-cent coin.
A condom applicator created to support AIDS prevention was named the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa in 2007.
