A molecular condom against AIDS

I found this at My Biotech Life and was thoroughly grossed out, then utterly fascinated.  Researchers at the University of Utah are working on a molecular condom that will fight the transmission of AIDS:

Dec. 11, 2006 - University of Utah scientists designed a "molecular condom" women could use daily to prevent AIDS by vaginally inserting a liquid that would turn into a gel-like coating and then, when exposed to semen, return to liquid form and release an antiviral drug.

"We have developed a new vaginal gel that we call a molecular condom because it is composed of molecules that are liquid at room temperature and, when applied in the vagina, will spread and turn into a gel and effectively coat the tissue," says Patrick Kiser, an assistant professor of bioengineering. "It's a smart molecular condom because we designed this gel to release anti-HIV drugs when the gel comes into contact with semen during intercourse."

"The ultimate hope for this technology is to protect women and their unborn or nursing children from the AIDS virus," but the molecular condom is five years away from tests in humans and roughly 10 years until it might be in widespread use, Kiser says.

At first, I was totally disgusted by this.  As a Catholic, my knee-jerk reaction against the word "condom" made me overlook what this is really about.  The site mentions nothing about the prevention of pregnancy, just a way to deliver anti-HIV drugs to the place they are needed the most:

Kiser says the University of Utah molecular condom would be a more advanced method of delivering an antiviral drug to prevent infection by the AIDS virus.

"Up until now, most of the microbicide work has focused on the development of the active drug, not on the delivery of the drug," Kiser says. "This study and other work in my lab are directed at developing new technologies for vaginal delivery of antiviral agents, particularly a microbicide that can respond to triggers [body temperature and semen] that are present before, during and after intercourse. This is the first paper that begins to point in that direction."

Kiser says the dosage of anti-HIV drugs in first-generation microbicides lasts only a few hours, so "you have to use them an hour before sex, which is difficult. You only need one failure to get the disease. We're shooting for a microbicide delivery system that would be used once a day or once a month."

I doubt that if the molecular condom turns to liquid upon intercourse that it would not be very effective as a contraceptive.  HIV is carried in the semen, not the sperm.

As with most announcements in the biotech arena, I have to stop and think if this development is inherently good, bad or neither.  In this case, after much thought, my sentiment is that the molecular condom against HIV could be a good thing.  If it doesn't have any significant contraceptive action, then it may be a blessing for married couples where one partner is HIV positive.  They could even have a child with a significantly lower risk of either the mother or baby contracting HIV. 

Of course the molecular condom could promote promiscuity if used incorrectly, but so can a lot of things (like television).  And in the case of widespread rape in some areas of Africa, it maybe the only way a woman could protect herself against HIV:

Microbicides are seen as a way for women to gain power by protecting themselves from HIV, particularly in impoverished nations where AIDS is widespread, where rape is rampant or where conventional condoms are taboo, not reliably available or where men resist using them.

What is your opinion?