Got an STD? Send a card!
We credit the information age with allowing us faster communication, rather, instant communication. Email, text messages, twitter, blogs, Blackberries and cellphones with cameras, video baby-monitors and TiVo; we can see our sleeping children in the other room while pausing live television so that we can send a message via Twitter that we have updated our blog with a photo taken with the camera on a cellphone. There is nothing that cannot be communicated around the world in a matter of minutes, er, seconds.
But what if that email contained some information that you would rather hear in person and possibly over muffin laced with a serious apology. inSpot.org, launched in 2004 is a website that allows users to notify partners anonymously that they need to be tested for the STD HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia or syphilis.
I think it is great that there exists a way to notify past partners that they could have been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease, however, this is a little, oh, odd? The benefits of someone getting tested and therefore early treatment outweigh the inhumane and potentially insensitivity of this notification method.
The site reported to CNN that over 50,000 cards have been sent since their launch and while the potential of misuse was a concern they have actually had very few complaints, specifically less than 10 cards that were received in error. Started in San Francisco this site has spread to New York, Chicago, Canada and Romania.
The website inSpot also provides information about where to go for testing and treatment. It also provides great and accurate information about treatable and curable STDs.
inSpot’s RESOURCE link is also quite well stocked.
