(no subject)
Feb. 20th, 2004 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geminigirlI'm curious about your thoughts on this...
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) --Fighting fire with fire, public health officials are using e-mail to try to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among people who meet through Internet chat rooms and Web sites.
In a pilot program in Los Angeles County, health officials use e-mail and the Internet to notify the sex partners of people who had been diagnosed with STDS.
San Francisco's Health Department is believed to be the only other agency to use e-mail in this way, said Dr. Pragna Patel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released a case study Thursday on the Los Angeles County project.
"Using e-mail has been a helpful and good alternative when you have otherwise anonymous sex partners," Patel said. "More and more the Internet is serving as a place to meet sex partners and engage in risky behavior."
Tracking STD cases among people who have met in chat rooms is difficult because people often take part anonymously. Health officials often do not have names, addresses or other information to work with.
In other parts of the country, health officials post prevention messages on Web sites used by gay and bisexual men to meet each other. But e-mail is not used. Instead, health officials use regular mail or contact people in person to tell them that they may have been exposed.
"I think when we are in a war to save life then we have to use any means necessary to get the means out," said Sandra Singleton McDonald, who runs an Atlanta AIDS program and is on the President's Advisory Committee on HIV and AIDS.
In Los Angeles, the need to curb STDs and promote prevention is crucial: The county recently reported its first increase in new AIDS cases in a decade.
The number of cases rose a half-percent from 1,555 to 1,562 between 2001 and 2002, according to preliminary figures from the county Department of Health Services. The increase was entirely among men, whose cases jumped by 1.6 percent. The number of new cases reported among women declined.
In addition, the county reported that nearly a quarter of 759 gay and bisexual men who had syphilis had used the Internet to meet sex partners between 2001 and 2003.
In the case study, health officials described a man diagnosed with syphilis in 2002 who said he had 134 male sex partners in a six-month period. County officials sent e-mails to 111 of the partners to alert them that they may have been exposed to an STD. A quarter of those people contacted the health department.
In a second case, a 31-year-old man tested positive for syphilis last March and provided the county with 16 e-mail addresses of recent partners. Nearly half of the partners made arrangements with health officials to be tested.
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) --Fighting fire with fire, public health officials are using e-mail to try to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among people who meet through Internet chat rooms and Web sites.
In a pilot program in Los Angeles County, health officials use e-mail and the Internet to notify the sex partners of people who had been diagnosed with STDS.
San Francisco's Health Department is believed to be the only other agency to use e-mail in this way, said Dr. Pragna Patel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released a case study Thursday on the Los Angeles County project.
"Using e-mail has been a helpful and good alternative when you have otherwise anonymous sex partners," Patel said. "More and more the Internet is serving as a place to meet sex partners and engage in risky behavior."
Tracking STD cases among people who have met in chat rooms is difficult because people often take part anonymously. Health officials often do not have names, addresses or other information to work with.
In other parts of the country, health officials post prevention messages on Web sites used by gay and bisexual men to meet each other. But e-mail is not used. Instead, health officials use regular mail or contact people in person to tell them that they may have been exposed.
"I think when we are in a war to save life then we have to use any means necessary to get the means out," said Sandra Singleton McDonald, who runs an Atlanta AIDS program and is on the President's Advisory Committee on HIV and AIDS.
In Los Angeles, the need to curb STDs and promote prevention is crucial: The county recently reported its first increase in new AIDS cases in a decade.
The number of cases rose a half-percent from 1,555 to 1,562 between 2001 and 2002, according to preliminary figures from the county Department of Health Services. The increase was entirely among men, whose cases jumped by 1.6 percent. The number of new cases reported among women declined.
In addition, the county reported that nearly a quarter of 759 gay and bisexual men who had syphilis had used the Internet to meet sex partners between 2001 and 2003.
In the case study, health officials described a man diagnosed with syphilis in 2002 who said he had 134 male sex partners in a six-month period. County officials sent e-mails to 111 of the partners to alert them that they may have been exposed to an STD. A quarter of those people contacted the health department.
In a second case, a 31-year-old man tested positive for syphilis last March and provided the county with 16 e-mail addresses of recent partners. Nearly half of the partners made arrangements with health officials to be tested.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 08:32 pm (UTC)I would immediately hit "delete" and send it to the spam pile. A legitimate statement is always sent by snail mail on letterhead with a real 32 cent stamp.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-21 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 09:03 pm (UTC)I think STD's are serious enough that if at least a couple people are saved from being infected because of this program, it'd be worth it. I'm sure there are other considerations but I think it is definitely worth investigating.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-21 12:03 am (UTC)However, it might be easier to hide an email than a letter that has your name on it in big bold letters appearing in what might be your parents' mailbox too. And a phone call is just asking for trouble. (I never got one of these calls so i have no idea how they're worded.) So really I think it could go either way. Some of these people only really pay attention to email anyway, and would be better reached that way. Others would knock it to the spam pile and move on.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-21 02:24 am (UTC)Would I, having tested positive for something, tell the government who I've slept with, and they would email these people on my behalf? I sort of understand why this might help if they didn't use my name (because some people wouldn't/don't tell partners because of embarassment or something), but on the other hand, receiving such an email I'd immediately assume it was spam. Or some jackass trolling soc.bi for email addresses and getting his rocks off scaring people.
As long as this is the case, where the person testing positive voluntarily supplies addresses, I don't really see a problem with it.
On the other hand, if the government is going to notice that I've got an STD and then email everything they think I might've had sex with, that seems like a problem. Or if the government demands these email addresses.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-21 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-21 12:24 pm (UTC)I would certainly expect and want the clinic to delete my email address after one use, though, not store it (I don't think it would be legal to store it without my consent, in fact, under UK data protection law).
no subject
Date: 2004-02-23 04:27 pm (UTC)But the basic idea is ok.
(Either another one of your posts today is broken in some way or LJ is playing up - it jumps between being visible / forbidden / impossible to comment to...)
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 04:47 pm (UTC)And by the way...have you any clever ideas for the HIV prevention community we talked about the other day? I have everything ready to go, but a name.
Re:
Date: 2004-02-23 09:39 pm (UTC)