Students Invent New Condom That Can Detect STIs

ILFORD, U.K.—Hey, adult performers: Remember those nerdy kids in high school? Of course, some of you were nerdy, and some of you beat up on the nerdy ones—but guess what? A trio of them in England may just have saved your collective asses, not to mention the entire adult industry! It seems that Daanyaal Ali, 14, Muaz Nawaz, 13 and Chirag Shah, 14, all pupils at Isaac Newton Academy in Ilford, Essex, entered England's TeenTech Awards contest, and their creation, the S.T.EYE condom, won them the contest's top prize for "best health innovation." While the exact process hasn't been revealed, the S.T.EYE is a new brand of condom which is coated with a thin layer of chemicals that can detect the bacteria and viruses commonly found in sexually transmitted infections (STIs). So far, there are four different "detector condoms": yellow for herpes, green for chlamydia, blue for syphilis and purple for the human papillomavirus (HPV). If the condom finds the bacteria/viruses for the STI for which it is programmed, the condom will glow like a low-powered fluorescent light, letting the user know that his/her partner has likely been infected with the disease. "We wanted to create something that makes detecting harmful STIs safer than ever before, so that people can take immediate action in the privacy of their own homes without the invasive procedures at the doctors," Daanyaal Ali told EliteDaily.com. "We’ve made sure we're able to give peace of mind to users and make sure people can be even more responsible than ever before." For their invention, the trio got £1,000 (US$1,574) and a trip to Buckingham Palace, according to The Independent—but the condoms' implications for the American adult industry are colossal. One of the arguments used in favor of mandatory condoms and against the adult industry's STI testing program has been, "What if the performer has become infected after his/her most recent test but before the 14-day testing period has lapsed?" But with this new invention, performers would be able to briefly have off-camera sex with their partners using all of the different STI-detecting condoms, and if any one showed up positive, that performer could be flagged for further testing at one of the clinics serving the adult community. But if none of the condoms glowed, everyone would know that the production could proceed without further worry. Sadly, the S.T.EYE is not yet on the market, and it's unclear whether its inventors are working on condoms that will detect other STIs, but that day can't be far away—and it can't come too soon for the adult content production community.