CYBERSPACE — One of the downsides to the sexual revolution was a vast increase in opportunities for various sexually-related infections to discover and explore new physical territories. Today, having the “STD Talk” is nearly as common as having the “do you come here often.” Or, it should be. For those times when the subject just didn’t come up and should have – or there was a calculated risk – there’s now inSPOT.
The relative anonymity of the internet comes to the aid of the tongue-tied, terrified, or minimally responsible, thanks to inSPOT’s STD testing encouragement e-cards, which allow one-time or moresome lovers to clue the recipient in about their possible risk.
“Who? What? When? Where?” MSNBC.com reports one card reading. “It doesn’t matter. I got an STD; you might have it, too. Please get checked out.”
According to MSNBC.com, the approach works, with 750 people visiting per day and 49,500 postcards being send since 2004. The majority of e-cards sent out relate to syphilis and gonorrhea, clocking in at 15-percent and followed by Chlamydia at 11.6-percent and HIV at 9.3-percent.
Once the shock of learning that it might be them and not their Inbox that has a viral or bacterial infection, the e-card recipient can click a link leading to information about STDs, their treatments, and local clinics that provide testing services.
Depending on where the click-thru to resources originates from, the rate ranges from 20.4-percent (Los Angeles) to 48-percent (Idaho).
Unsurprisingly, inSPOT originated in San Francisco; the brainchild of The Joy of Cybersex author Deb Levine and Dr. Jeffrey D. Klausner, director of STD Prevention and Control Services for the city’s Department of Public Health.
Klausner explained to MSNBC.com that after noticing a spike in syphilis cases among gay men in 2001, he learned that many of the cases stemmed from encounters negotiated online.
Together with Levine, the two created ISIS, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the amount of sexual health information available online. The notification e-cards were an important part of that.
While there’s currently no way of knowing how many people would have informed their sexual contacts anyway or how many e-card recipients got tested and treated, nearly all feedback so far has been positive.
Nonetheless, some still worry that anonymous and consequence-free notification such as inSPOT provides may make exposing others and fessing up later a little too easy. Likewise, in areas where some medications can be ordered online without a doctor’s visit, more serious infections may go undiagnosed.
Ironically, as cutting edge as the idea of an STD notification e-card may be, some point out that an increasing number of people are going mobile, making hooking up even easier. Perhaps an iPhone app awaits…
