Australia comes out with new condom that kills sexually transmitted diseases

Australia has designed a new condom that has the ability to destroy sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV and herpes on contact to prevent transmission of diseases.

According to The Telegraph, the condom contains an antiviral gel, known as VivaGel, which kills STDs on contact. VivaGel was designed by Starpharma, an Australian biotech firm, which is working together Ansell, a condom company in Australia, to create and distribute the condoms.

When the gel was tested on HIV, herpes simplex virus (HSV), and human papillomavirus (HPV), results showed that it was capable of killing up to 99.9 percent of the STDs; the VivaGel condom is the first condom to kill STDs instead of simply blocking them. The condom has been approved by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, which means that it will hit the shelves soon, according to Business Standard.

The VivaGel condoms are expected to be available for purchase within the next three months. The U.S. Food and Drugs Administration is currently reviewing the product in order to possibly sell the product in the U.S. Japan is another country that has approved of STD killing condoms.