Testing Times: New App Shares STI Results Online

Protecting your sexual health is paramount, whether you're enjoying the single life or in a relationship, but bringing up the subject of sexually transmitted diseases can tend to be a bit of a buzz kill. Luckily, a US company has come up with a novel way of making these conversations a little 'less awkward' between partners. Hula, formerly known as Qpid.me, has launched an app that offers “a free way to find STD testing, get the results on your phone and share your verified STD status”. While this may seem a little strange, it is certainly a way to initiate 'the conversation' and founder Ramin Bastani says that he was inspired to create the product when "a girl slapped me in the face after I asked if she'd been tested. As she walked out, I sat there thinking, 'there has to a better way to have this conversation'." The 'Facebook for STI's' shares results for HIV, gonorrhoea, chlamydia, syphilis, hepatitis C antibody, as well as the HPV and hepatitis A vaccines, and can send them to your chosen contact online or by text message. Dr Jeffrey Klausner, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at UCLA and advisor to Hula, says that the app could lead to a decline in the number of sexually transmitted diseases contracted each year. "Qpid.me is the type of common sense advance that captures the opportunity...to mobilize health information and the individual's need for timely information, in this case sexual health information. Such information may lead to a healthier and even more importantly, more honest successful sexual encounter. That would be revolutionary." With just under 5,000 sexual transmitted infections reported to the HSPC in Ireland in the first half of 2013, regular testing is vitally important so if you're due a check-up, click here.