Using condoms is the best way to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases but what if they could diagnose them too?
Three teenagers from Britain have come up with an idea that could potentially change the future of safe sex. They propose that a condom could change color if you had an STD. Depending on the type of venereal disease, it could turn green, yellow or purple and give you (and your partner) warning that you should get checked out.
This idea could limit the spread of STD’s, people may not be aware that they have any sexually transmitted infections and don’t think they need to get tested because they’ve been ‘safe’. This condom would show that they were at risk and enable them to seek treatment asap.
The Washington Post commented, “a concept for a smart condom that would alter its luminescent hue when exposed to common STDs. There would be antibodies on the condom that would interact with the antigens of STDs, causing the condom to change colors depending on the disease.”
The three teenage inventors who came up with this great idea, aptly named ‘S.T.EYE.’, are from the Isaac Newton Academy in England. Daanyaal Ali, 14, Muaz Nawaz, 13, and Chirag Shah, 14 won $1,500 in prize money for their project.
So what do the colors represent?
Green: If the condom turns green, it would be a sign of chlamydia. Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted disease and you may not know that you have it, if the condom turns green you could go and get treatment straight away to prevent spreading of the disease.
Yellow: Herpes symptoms would turn it yellow, it’s not clear whether the color would change if symptoms weren’t present.
Purple: HPV, the human papilloma virus, turns the condom purple. HPV is linked to cervical cancer and becoming widely spread, it’s not detectable amongst men and this color changing condom could make all the difference.
Blue: If it turns blue, seek medical attention asap as it means you have syphilis.
There are all sorts of questions surrounding the idea, would it detect just you or you and your partner? Is it able to detect more than one disease at a time, possibly by showing multiple colours (let’s hope you don’t get a full rainbow!).
Although turning yellow currently points out that you have herpes, the students are considering not including it and swapping it for gonorrhoea or HIV, both of which are incredibly important to detect early on.
This magical color changing condom is still in the idea phase and needs a lot of work to turn it into a reality. It’s still a brilliant concept and could be a great early warning sign for those who don’t get regularly tested for STD’s.
Bonus Video: The Young Turks Have An Interesting Perspective
