One of the ways to control the spread of STDs is to notify the sexual partners of a person who has been diagnosed with one. And in the age of the internet one nonprofit group, Internet Sexuality Information Services, is doing just that through a free E-card service that can be used by anyone to contact their sexual partners. The cards, with message such as, “No one wants to be the bearer of bad news…but I got diagnosed with STDs (You might have one, too),” can be sent to up to 6 people anonymously, or they can include contact information with a personalized note. Since inSPOT’s launch in 2004, more than 30,000 people have sent more than 49,500 of the cards. No details about the senders or recipients are stored in order to protect users’ privacy. And while misuse by pranksters is a possibility, fewer than 10 recipients have complained of receiving a message in error since the launch of the service in 2004 .
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Tags: e-card, herpes, HIV, inspot, STD, syphilis
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 am
hmmm sounds like a valuable service! Do you charge?
October 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
John – the service is free!
November 6th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This is my first time hearing about E-CARD as a Physician Assistant
Clinician on the Refugee Camp in Ghana for the past 7 years.
Beside, how will clients use the card in Africa-on a refugee when most don,t have mail box or email addresses.
please help me to introduce it to my refugee community.