Home » Archive

Articles in the Technology Category

Economics, Featured, Media, Public Health, Technology »

Safe sex? Sell it “as good as bareback”

Bareback sex is a serious matter when it comes to HIV prevention. It is an issue difficult to address and which often triggers heated debates. Beyond the differences in  opinions surrounding bareback sex, it is obvious that sex with and without condom is not the same and bareback practitioners often emphasise the difference in sensation between protected sex and bareback sex. Real or not, this difference made some people thinking and got them to understand that not everybody is prepared to sacrifice safety to pleasure, and that if it …

  • Share/Bookmark

Featured, Public Health, Science, Technology »

CAPRISA: the day after

The results of the CAPRISA trial which tested the safety and effectiveness of a 1% Tenofovir Gel for the prevention of HIV acquisition in women created quite a stir at the XVIII International AIDS conference in Vienna. For the first time, and after years of unsuccessful research, a randomised trial involving 889 women in South Africa showed that it was possible to prevent HIV acquisition with a gel containing an antiretroviral (ARV).
Overall the results are clear and unequivocal, after 30 months of gel use, the group of women who …

  • Share/Bookmark

Society, Technology »

Daft cruising? There is an App for that!

It’s for gay, bi, curious and it’s daft. It is an iPhone “quick, convenient, and discreet” application to find a date. So they say.
Thus the other day, whilst trying to have a drink and a conversation in a busy bar of Soho, I could not but notice the unusual behaviour of my friend: looking at his iPhone, then around the room, back to his iPhone and then scouting the room again. What was he up to? Sending SMS to a potential date? Better ask than talking to myself.
It turned up …

  • Share/Bookmark

Public Health, Science, Technology »

HIV Prevention Clinical Trials: Size Matters

In February 2009 the Microbicide Trial Network (MTN) announced the main finding of its Phase II/IIb Safety and Effectiveness Study of the Vaginal Microbicides 0.5% PRO 2000 Gel for the Prevention of HIV Infection in Women (a.k.a HPTN 035).
This study conducted in Africa and the US was set up to find out if a chemical compound called PRO 2000 could prevent HIV infection in women. The compound itself came as a gel that women needed to apply vaginally prior to have sex. The concept of a product that can be …

  • Share/Bookmark

Media, Public Health, Technology »

Condoms: Can technology succeed where education has failed?

Mates® is now manufacturing and merchandising a new type of condom, “thinner, softer and much more flexible”. The objective is to make wearing condom as if wearing nothing. Made with Sensoprene (aka polyisoprene), Mates® claims that using their Skyn™ condoms will make sex feel better.
The advert is rather interesting with its antithetic approach to condom promotion.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

  • Share/Bookmark