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Bill Gates wants you to invent the condom of the future

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Sex (as long as it is consensual) pretty much always feels good. Because, you know, it is sex.

But global public health advocates understand that due to cultural stigma, social pressure and generic "it just doesn't feel the same" whining, people still aren't using condoms at the rate that they could be given how widely available they have become.

So with that in mind, the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, put out a call for a better designed, more pleasure-inducing condom. The challenge is to make an experience-enhancing condom that will make men and women go weak in their desire to have protected sex! For the good of humankind!

The problem (emphasis mine):

CDC releases new STD report, ruins Valentine’s Day for everyone

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 21:50:00 +0000

According to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, young people ages 15 - 24 account for half of the 19.7 million sexually transmitted infections that occur annually. The CDC reported data on eight sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, herpes and HPV.

So, you know, happy Valentine's Day or whatever.

Lack of insurance and an inability to access sexual health services (I'm looking at you here, Texas) were major factors in the disproportionate representation of young people in the findings, said Catherine Satterwhite, an author of one of the reports and a CDC epidemiologist. Young women stand a greater risk of infection than men, she added.

“We’ve seen a disproportionate burden for quite a while,” Satterwhite said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. “Young women in particular are at greater risk."

Antiabortion activists block sexual health funding for at-risk teens

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:16:00 +0000

Last year, a pair of researchers at North Dakota State University won a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families to start a sexual health program aimed at preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in at-risk teens.

But as Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones reports, the school had contracted Planned Parenthood to provide the services, and antiabortion activists in the state started complaining about NDSU doing business with the nationwide women's health -- and in states other than North Dakota, abortion services -- provider.

"When I see something that says this is Planned Parenthood — they’re not even a part of the state of North Dakota. They don't serve anyone in North Dakota, and they shouldn't be a part of North Dakota. They're not a part of how we do business in this state," said Rep. Bette Grande on a local radio show denouncing Planned Parenthood and NDSU. "It is an overt abortion industry that we don't want to be a part of," she added.

Stop the bikini wax! Save the crabs!

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:26:00 +0000

Weird news, everybody! Pubic lice are becoming an endangered species!

Because more and more people are opting to go bare "down there" -- a 2011 study revealed that up to 80 percent of all college-aged men and women had removed some or all of their pubic hair at least once -- the tiny, pubic-dwelling insects have nowhere to "live." And without a host to feed on, the bugs' breeding cycle has been interrupted, and lice populations are plummeting.

"The 'habitat destruction' of the pubic lice is increasing and they are becoming an endangered species," Janet Wilson, a consultant in sexual health, told Bloomberg News.

Drug-resistant gonorrhea has come to North America

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:32:00 +0000

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 700,000 Americans get gonorrhea every year. And while that might sound like cause for concern, the common STI is relatively easy to treat with a course of antibiotics.

That's why a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has public health officials worried. A class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins appears to be weakening against gonorrhea infections worldwide and, according to the report, the drug-resistant strain has now reached North America.

Head researcher Vanessa Allen, of Public Health Ontario, examined people who were treated for gonorrhea with cefixime (a cephalosporin) at a clinic in Toronto. Of the 133 patients who received treatment, 6.77 percent failed to respond to medication -- meaning one in 15 patients had contracted the drug-resistant super strain. And a recent piece in the New Yorker reports that some public-health officials believe the superbug will be widespread in as little as five years.

Report: HPV rates remain high because parents won’t vaccinate

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 22:45:00 +0000

A report published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that while cancer rates overall continue to decline in the U.S., rates of human papilloma virus-related cancers remain high.

Here's the insane part: This doesn't have to be the case! There is a vaccine that could help stem the number of cancer deaths -- of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, pharynx, anus and throat -- related to HPV each year. It's just that not enough kids are getting it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began mandating the Gardasil shot for school entry, but parents refused, believing it would only promote sexual activity. (Even though research shows that's not case.) In 2010, fewer than half of girls aged 13-17 had received even one dose of the vaccine, while only 32 percent had received the recommended three doses, according to the report.

“Condom ambulance” coming to a campus near you

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:44:00 +0000

There's not much need to leave the house these days. Seamless brings you sushi during a superstorm, Amazon delivers books to your doorstep and Netflix ensures that you never read them. For those curious about the next big thing in our increasingly stationary consumer culture, look no further than the Condom Ambulance, a condom delivery service for your latest sex emergency.

Launched by College of New Jersey sophomore and interactive multimedia major Kyle McCabe, the Condom Ambulance will get you good and prophylactic-ed within minutes of placing your order by phone, text or Web. After a customer fills out the order form, provides an on-campus location and signs a waiver, McCabe hurries over with your order -- $3 for one condom, and up to 10 for $15 -- and discreetly slips it under your door. The website promises: you've gone from "kissing, to condoms, to sexy-time in mere seconds."

McCabe's motivation for starting the Condom Ambulance isn't purely financial, as he told his campus newspaper, the Signal.