Website helps you make your STD status known to prospective partners

 

One of the greatest challenges facing health officials is to identify sexual partners of people who have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD), so they can inform them to get tested. Many people are too embarrassed to tell their sexual partners that they may have an STD, which increases the risk of individual unintentionally spreading these infections.

Furthermore, in this new age of online dating, it can be difficult to know whether it's safe to trust an individual's word when he or she claims that they do not have an STD. Recently, Gizmodo reported on a website that aims to help take uncertainty out of a potential sexual partner's STD status. Called Qpid.me, the website allows users to create a profile where they state whether or not they have an STD. The website then contacts a person's doctor to confirm the results of their latest STD test, and then allows the individual to determine how accessible they want this information to be. The goal is to offer people information to help them make more informed sexual decisions.

"After getting verified with Qpid.me, you will be able to choose your own, secure, 'Share It' access code. You can then text Qpid.me with your Qpid.me username and code to retrieve your results on your own cell phone, which you can then show to your special friend(s)," according to the news source.

Of course, the success of this new website depends on people getting regular STD tests, which many people do not do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.2 million Americans have HIV, and that one out of five of these individuals is unaware of their infection. This statistic highlights the need for programs that highlight the importance of STD testing.