Australian Olympic athletes will benefit from Zika-virus proof condoms, after Australian pharmaceutical company Starpharma Holdings joined forces with condom manufacturer Ansell to produce condoms treated with an antiviral product called VivaGel.
According to Starpharma, the lubricant showed near-total antiviral protection against Zika and other sexually transmitted diseases in laboratory studies.
"The health and wellbeing of the team comes first," Australian chef de mission at the Rio Olympics Kitty Chiller told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Our association with Starpharma will provide extra protection for everyone on the team, and is a commonsense approach to a very serious problem we are facing in Rio."
The condoms for the Australian team are in addition to those in free dispensing machines, located in every block of the Olympic Village. For this year's Olympics, they will contain 350,000 male condoms and 100,000 female condoms for athletes.
