Not all e-cards bring cheer and laughter. But the bad news contained in some can save a recipient’s life.
Ottawa residents who have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) can now let their sexual partners know by sending pre-formatted e-cards.
In January, the city’s public health department and the AIDS Committee of Ottawa introduced inSpot, a cyber tool that offers a series of free, user-friendly STI notification cards. The online service also links to available health resources and treatment centres in the community.
Adam Graham, co-ordinator for gay men’s HIV prevention at the Ottawa AIDS Committee, said inSpot’s approach makes sense because the Internet is where many men go to look for partners.
“Where people are meeting up, that’s where we want to be,” he said, adding that he is confident the e-cards will encourage more people to notify their partners who are at risk of STIs.
InSpot was launched in San Francisco in 2004 by Internet Sexuality Information Services. The not-for-profit company uses online technologies to promote disease prevention. Today, inSpot is offered in 10 North American cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Toronto.
Founder and executive director Deb Levine said the online tool “is helping people feel empowered.”
A majority of inSpot users send e-cards anonymously, that is without registering with the site or revealing their name to recipients. Anonymity can act as an incentive to reveal one’s status.
The goal, Levine said, is to get people to alert their sexual partners of a potential infection risk and to direct them to health care providers who will inform them about infectious diseases.
Regarding concerns that the site could be compromised by unscrupulous individuals, Levine responded by saying the company is tracking misuse.
So far, from an average of 750 daily visitors, the rate of complaints stands at 0.0025 per cent, she said.
Christiane Bouchard, project officer at Ottawa Public Health, said a notice announcing the new service has been sent to the city’s 1,700 physicians. She said she hopes that when patients are diagnosed with an STI, doctors will suggest inSpot as a way to reach out to current and former sexual partners.
Bouchard anticipates that inSpot will offer an easier option to people who are embarrassed to discuss STIs in person.
“It’s not as threatening,” she said.
InSpot was created to reach out primarily to gay men and men who have sex with men, but anybody who wants to notify a sexual partner may use the site’s e-cards. To reflect this, a dozen of local health service providers are listed in the site’s resources section and not all cater to the gay community.
According to Ottawa Public Health, chlamydia and gonorrhea are both on the rise among the city’s young men and women. The agency’s figures show that gonorrhea infections have nearly tripled in women aged 20 to 24 between 1997 and 2005.
Planned Parenthood of Ottawa is one organization listed on the online resources page.
But executive director Stéphanie Piché said the family planning organization is more involved in prevention efforts than in partner notification.
Planned Parenthood has been participating in the Get Tested campaign –placing ads on the side of buses featuring a banana – for three years.
“Because we are not nurses or doctors, we refer people to the sexual health centre of Ottawa Public Health, where they can get medical support,” she explained.
After only a few weeks in operation, it is too early to tell if inSpot is prompting more Ottawans to notify their partners.
But Graham said he is keeping an eye on the numbers, and Bouchard predicted that preliminary data would be available in three months.
“We want inSpot to be a permanent addition to existing [notification] services,” Graham said.
The AIDS Committee of Ottawa paid $25,000 for access to the portal. Translation is currently being done and a French version of the site is expected online before the end of February.