Extra-small condoms 'Hotshot' ready for 12-year-olds

Now recognized as a global threat, the HIV epidemic is growing, and efforts to fight it need to grow at an even greater rate if they are to be successful.

Condoms play a key role in preventing HIV infection around the world. Working on this strategy, a leading condom manufacturer in Switzerland has created extra-small condoms for boys as young as 12-years-old.

Countries around the world are taking a range of new measures to fight worsening HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Washington DC, which has been distributing free male condoms citywide for nearly a decade, is now planning to soon be hand out 500,000 female condoms for free in parts of the city with high infection, becoming the first city in the United States to distribute condoms for females at no cost, in an attempt to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Hotshot for Swiss tweens and teens
Now, Switzerland has probably become the first country in the world to sell extra small condoms for 12 year olds. The condom, called the Hotshot, is being sold in Swiss markets with the slogan, "it fits when passion hits" to boys between 12 and 14 years old.

The Hotshot, which is smaller than the average condom, is made by the Swiss manufacturer Lamprecht AG.

The prophylactic was developed after a study showed young teens were regularly engaging in unprotected sex, not using proper protection when engaging in intercourse.

Epidemic of child sexualisation led to its production
Following the shocking findings, family planning groups and the Swiss AIDS Federation campaigned for the production of the small condoms.

"The result that shocked us concerned young boys who display apparently risky behaviour," said Nancy Bodmer, who oversaw the research for the study at the Center for Development and Personality Psychology at Basel University in Switzerland, according to New York Daily News.

"They have more of a tendency not to protect themselves," she said. “They do not have a very developed sexual knowledge.

"They do not understand the consequences of what they are doing and leave the young girls to take care of the consequences," she said. "The results of this study suggest that early prevention makes sense."

About the Hotshot condoms
The Hotshot is smaller than the average - not in length but in diameter. A standard condom has a diameter of 2 inches, while the Hotshot measures 1.7 inches in diameter and 7.4 inches in length.

The Hotshot condoms currently are available only in Switzerland at a cost of Swiss Franc 7.60 for a packet of six.

According to a spokesperson for the company, Lamprecht AG, has said that the condoms are likely to end up on sale in Britain, considering that it has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe.

"At the moment we are only producing the Hotshot in Switzerland. But the UK is certainly a very attractive market since there is a very high rate of underage conception. The UK would definitely be top priority if we marketed abroad," Nysse Norballe, a spokesman for the company, said.