An Online Social Utility for STD Prevention

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STDPreventionOnline.org. Created and maintained by the Internet & STD Center of Excellence, Denver Department of Health. Free of Charge.

In response to the tremendous growth of social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010), the Internet & STD Center of Excellence is capitalizing on such technologies for professionals specializing in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexual health education, counseling, and research. With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and carried out by the Denver Department of Public Health, one of the Center's major projects is STDPreventionOnline.org (STDPO; see Figure 1). Welcoming visitors to this free SNS for STD prevention and sexual health specialists is the statement, "Putting reproductive health professionals in touch with the people and resources they need."

Designed with principles embraced by major SNSs, STDPO members can build a profile (see Figure 2) and upload a curriculum vitae, create, maintain, and follow others' STD- and sexual health-related blogs, post comments and …