According to the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) more than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day worldwide, each year, there are an estimated 357 million new infections with 1 of 4 STIs: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis and trichomoniasis; and more than 500 million people are estimated to have genital infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV).
About 36.7 million people are living with HIV around the world, and as of June 2016, 17 million people living with HIV were receiving medicines to treat HIV, called antiretroviral therapy (ART).
Those days with the increase of users in dating apps, STIs are more common, because it’s easier to develop intimate relationships, too many users are just looking for a “one-night stand” and do not care about use protection at all, it’s estimated that 6 of 10 young people with HIV do not know they are infected, and just because they do not have any signs or symptoms they believe they are “clear”.
That’s why dating app such as Grindr decided to do a campaign to prevent and raise awareness between their users. Since it begun and according to a Clinic at a hospital in Brooklyn, the success rate has been really high, in the first month of using the app in this way, more than 20 new at-risk patients came to that clinic for a variety of preventative services, such as sexual health counselling, HIV/STI testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and after a year, that number raise to 100 new patients.
Red Cross Alicante (Spain) had created profiles in the most popular apps for men to give a warning to the gay community about how dangerous is to not use protection; their profiles are active 24 hours and they are one hundred percent anonymous.
Also in the United States, Grindr, has implemented banner ads to offer free HIV test kits, users can receive it in the mail, or they will give you a voucher to redeem in a pharmacy or even a code for a vending machine in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
Remember, the best way to prevent is protection, if you’ve been in a unprotected situation, it’s time for a test. STIs do not discriminate.
