Health officials turning to Internet to fight STDs

LOS ANGELES -- When it comes to sex, the Internet has a dark side: It helps people connect with strangers, fueling the spread of disease.

But recently, health authorities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities have been trying to use the Internet for healthier purposes.

They are hiring counselors to visit sex chat rooms, advertising often provocative prevention messages, arranging testing for sexually transmitted diseases and even helping to notify -- via online postcards -- the partners of people found to be infected.

One site, itrick.org, appears to be the 21st-century version of the little black book. It lets people keep track of all their sexual partners -- including height, weight, photos, and contact information -- and can be used to send out a mass e-mail if a user learns that he has a transmissible disease.

Some privately operated websites are helping people select mates according to whether they are HIV positive or negative. That practice, known as ''sero-sorting," is cited by AIDS agencies in San Francisco as one possible explanation for why the city's HIV infection rates are estimated to have dropped 10 percent in the last five years.

''Clearly, we are at the beginning of tapping this technology" in our favor, said Dr. Ronald Valdiserri of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ''We're starting to find that we can use the Internet to help reach people in ways we couldn't otherwise."

''The Internet removes the embarrassment factor, so people can honestly talk about what they are doing and what their risks are," said Deborah Levine, director of the nonprofit Internet Sexuality Information Services, which has teamed with half a dozen US cities to promote STD prevention online.

Because disease prevention online is so new, it is unclear how well it works.

A growing number of websites are aimed at the general population, but most have focused primarily on gay and bisexual men.

Research shows that people who meet on the Internet are likelier to engage in risky behavior and to have a sexually transmitted disease.