In the near future, women could prevent HIV with the simple application of new high-tech tampon.
This new version of the tampon works the same way the traditional feminine product is used. However, this tech tampon includes an anti-HIV microbicide that is electrically spun into its fabric and will protect women from the deadly virus as well as other sexually transmitted diseases.
Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle discuss the delivery mechanism of the new high-tech tampon in a paper in the June issue of the Antimicobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal.
The tampon includes microbicide, a substance that can kill microbes and prevent STDs and HIV. Microbicide will be absorbed within six minutes of insertion, faster than current gel and cream microbicides on the market that are often messy.
"That means women don't have to apply it far in advance of having sex," bio-engineer Cameron Ball said. "There's a race between the anti-HIV microbicide to get to the tissue before the virus does. So the more quickly it dissolves, the better."
The high-tech fabric is made using nanotechnology and has been approved by the FDA. "It's way better than any Egyptian cotton, high-count fabric that you could find," Ball says. "Each thread is about 200 times smaller than a human hair."
The scientists found that the tech tampon can have about 30 percent of its mass made up of microbicide thanks to the nano-fibres. While studies show that microbicide gels can reduce HIV transmission by 54 percent, gels and creams on the market only contain 3 percent of the active drugs.
Some of the microbicides that are used are currently in clinical trails. This could mean the HIV preventing tampon won't be available for public use for about 10 years.
Other studies suggest that high-risk HIV populations do not use tampons. A 2012 study found that low-income black and Latina women ages 15 to 35 were less likely to use tampons than white women. Black and Hispanic women make up 79 percent of HIV cases, with poverty as an increased factor.
Researchers are looking into creating different shapes of the HIV preventing applicator. "It's a matter of giving women enough choices and options of what products are available and how they are used," said Ball. "So you meet the needs of as many women as possible."
More than 80 percent of women are diagnosed with HIV through heterosexual sex. Using a condom is the best means of prevention, but this new development allows women to have the control over their sexual health. The female condom has been available since 1993 but is more expensive and less popular compared to the male condom.
