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Background: In an effort to locate individuals exposed to STDs and HIV, DIS traditionally explore physical venues. Infected persons increasingly use the Internet and mobile devices to find potential partners; with a trend towards untraceable partners being identified through online sex-seeking. While North Carolina (NC) began Internet Partner Notification (IPN) in 2009, these services had not been fully implemented.
Objectives: To streamline NC IPN services, academicians and public health practitioners at UNC collaborated with NC Division of Public Health to formalize state IPN policies and centralize notifications.
Methods: We compared IPN contacts initiated and outcomes six months prior and three months after collaborating in 2011, as well as IPN data from 2010. IPN activities on five closed email systems (adult partner seeking and social networking sites) and four open systems (traditional email) are described.
Results: In the six months prior to the collaboration, 71 IPN contacts were initiated; 19 (27%) syphilis, 20 (28%) HIV and 32 (45%) dual exposures. In the first three months after the partnership, 84 contacts were initiated; 28 (33%) syphilis, 27 (32%) HIV and 29 (35%) dual exposures. We expanded IPN activities from three to five websites and set up profiles on 15 others. Overall, 95/155 (61%) of contacts have been successfully notified through September 30, 2011; compared to 34/133 (26%) of contacts being notified in all of 2010.
Conclusions:Collaborations between academic institutions and public health can result in improved and expanded partner notification services, especially when these activities can be centralized as demonstrated with IPN services in NC.
Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research: Though email script templates prompting partners to respond by phone to DIS have been an adequate way to begin a dialogue with partners, IPN will achieve further success as we continue to gain experience and evolve the virtual conversation to more closely replicate the face-to-face client/DIS interaction.