The e-card service "inSpot" is now available in Ottawa to help people inform their sexual partners about possible exposure to a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
The person sending the e-card can select from a drop-down list of infections, enter up to six e-mail addresses of recent sexual partners, type a short, personal message, and choose a design with template photos and messages. One card states, "It's not what you brought to the party, it's what you left with. I left with an STI. You might have too."
Users of inSpot can also choose to send out notifications anonymously, which may encourage more people to use the service and help prevent the spread of STIs.
The service was first developed in San Francisco in 2004 to help counter rising rates of syphilis among gay men. According to Deb Levine, the executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit Internet Sexuality Information Services, which created the site, inSpot has since expanded to include every sexual orientation and can be found in several cities, including Ottawa and Toronto as of January. The Ottawa web portal also includes information about clinics offering testing for STIs.
Adam Graham of the Ottawa AIDS Committee, which partnered with Ottawa Public Health to bring inSpot to the city for a $25,000 (US $24,753) fee, said many casual sexual encounters are arranged online, and email addresses may be the only contact information for a sexual partner.
The need for new ways of controlling the spread of STIs is growing. As of December, Ottawa Public health reported 40 cases of syphilis in 2007, after registering just a single case in 2000. The original site attracts 750 visitors daily.
02/14/08
CANADA: Now You Can Email a Sexual Partner to Warn of Exposure to Infection
Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com :: Tim Shufelt; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention