TORONTO – How would you feel if you received an anonymous e-mail saying that you may have a sexually transmitted infection(STI)? A new website recommended by Toronto Public Health is helping people do just that.
The website, Inspot, allows people infected with an STI to anonymously send an e-card to a former partner suggesting they get tested.
Some of the cards available to Torontonians read:
“I got screwed while screwing, you might have too.”
“You’re too hot to be out of action.”
“Going through my address book and you’re on the list.”
While all of the e-cards give the person the option of signing their name, it isn’t required.
The InSpot program is now being used as a utility to increase ‘partner notification’ by Toronto Public Health.
“We believe that it will help, we believe that anything we can do to increase the range of partner notification is a good thing,” Bruce Clarke, Manager of STI in the southwest region for Toronto Public Health, said.
Along with British Columbia, and the city of Ottawa, inSpot is a valuable tool, according to Clarke, to allow people to tell their partners about an infection.
In 2011, roughly 700 people sent cards, to approximately 1200 others, Clarke said.
The ability to send the cards anonymously is apparently a significant draw for the public health agency.
“Well that’s one of the big sells of it… sometimes people are a little shy about telling a partner about an STI,” Clarke said.
While the method of anonymously notifying sexual partners of an STI may seem unusual, Clarke says that much of the notification currently done by Public Health is anonymous.
Clarke says that though being able to send cards anonymously is a draw, he does acknowledge that the program allows people to play malicious jokes on others – though he’s received no complaints.
“Sometimes we’ve had questions in the past about people using it as a joke,” Clarke said. “We’ve never had any complaints.”
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