Good news, taxpayers! Your hard-earned dollars are now funding the salaries of government employees whose work includes contacting your exes to let them know if you’ve tested positive for an STD: From NPR:
In an effort to stop a spate of gonorrhea outbreaks, at least one public health department in the Pacific Northwest is offering a helpful service to infected patients: anonymous notification of former sexual partners.
That’s right. A government worker will track down and contact each ex for you. Awkward for all concerned? Yes. But at a time when gonorrhea is becoming stubbornly drug-resistant, health officials see it as time — and embarrassment — well spent.
Anna Halloran, who works for Spokane Regional Health District in eastern Washington, is kind of like a private investigator. She tries to find people who don’t know they might have a sexually transmitted disease, and get them treatment before they spread the infection.
“I feel a big sense of accomplishment when I’ve found somebody after I’ve been looking for them for weeks,” she says. And it’s not always easy.
“I try phone, I try the mail,” Halloran says. She’ll try texting, Facebook, even tracking people down in person. “You know, it’s a really sensitive subject. And it’s really hard news for people to get.”
It’s amazing that people will sleep with people they care so little about that that they’d rather that person unknowingly be affected by and spread a disease rather than embarrass themselves.