I saw a little blurb in a recent paper where they were saying that the coating on aspirin is giving new hope in the fight against HIV. Supposedly, the coating kills HIV when the coating is injected into the vagina.
I looked around on some internet news sites and I don’t see anything about this but maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. Anyone know anything about this?
Just 3 questions:
Isn’t the coating on aspirin just aspirin?
What, exactly, do you mean by “injected”? Is it a foam, or is an actual hypodermic used?
Will this give the phrase “take two aspirin and call me in the morning” a whole new meaning? [drumroll]ba-da-boom[/drumroll]
I don’t know how useful aspirin are for the prevention of HIV, but they make excellent contraceptives, all you’ve got to do is hold them between your knees…
It only hurts when I laugh.
No. Aspirin can cause stomach discomfort in some people. The thin coating helps keep the aspirin from directly contacting the stomach walls.
I can’t wait to see the commercial: “Safe sex with SureKoat, reason #69 - You’ll thank us for that clean AIDS test, your partner will thank you for reducing his/her stomach discomfort! Now available in an ozone friendly, non-aerosol spray!”
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
As for the first question, I’m not sure. I mean, you’d think if it was just aspirin, they’d have said,“New studies showing aspirin effective in killing HIV” instead of “New studies showing coating on aspirin effective in killing HIV.”
I THINK they made some kind of foam or gel out of the coating and sprayed it up in there.
I’m pretty sure I saw this in USA Today but I don’t think we have the copy anymore. I don’t know the answers to your questions but that’s why I’m asking if anyone else saw anything about this 
Just a little disclaimer for the younguns out there: I’m not sure exactly what they found so don’t go thinking aspirin will protect you from HIV. Sticking two aspirin up there before having sex most likely won’t do a bit of good. In other words, don’t try this at home, kids ;).
The compound in the coating is cellulose acetate phthalate. People are thinking of putting it into a cream.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990720/sc/aids_microbicide_2.html
Thanks Alphagene!
I finally found a story about it on MSNBC also. Here’s the intro paragraph:
“An ingredient used to coat pills to help them last longer in the digestive system could offer a new avenue for preventing transmission of the AIDS virus, researchers said Monday. They said the ingredient kills not only the HIV virus that causes AIDS, but the herpes virus and the bacteria that cause a range of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including gonorrhea, trichomonas and chlamydia.”
Promising news