KEY POINTS:
The world's first "safe sex passport" will be launched in the United States tomorrow to coincide with World Aids Day.
Aimed at those who find love over the internet, the passport is a way of letting the users of dating and social networking sites find out whether the person they have their eye on has a clean sexual bill of health.
The passport's creator, Gonzalo Paternoster, said he was inspired to develop the product after meeting a man who contracted HIV after having intercourse with someone he met on the internet.
"I think the sexual relationship that two people can share is very powerful, and now it's become such a dangerous thing," says Paternoster.
"Unfortunately there are a lot of people with sexually transmitted diseases who don't even know it. In some cases they do know and they withhold that information. It's only fair to both parties that there is full disclosure of each person's health status."
The credit-card sized passport was developed by the company Paternoster founded, SSP BioAnalytics Inc.
It enables the card holder to share their current STI test results with a potential partner before any intimacy takes place.
When a person applies for a passport - at a cost of around US$300 ($388) for six months - they receive their card, as well as unlimited online health certificates and STI/HIV tests.
They are required to take their passport with them when attending their screening to confirm their identity.
Five major STIs - HIV, genital herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis - are tested for.
The test results are then tied to the card so potential partners can call a phone number and quote the person's passport number to receive information about their test results and to find out the date of their last STI test.
Identification information can also be given out, so the caller knows for certain that the person they are meeting is really the person who was tested.
In addition, subscribers are provided with virtual health certificates which can be posted on their online dating or social networking page.
"Most people don't know that 1 in 5 adults in the US have an [STI]," says Paternoster.
"With close to 90 million singles out there, a large percentage of them will be affected by [STI]s at some point in their life."
About 15,000 people and several dating websites have already expressed an interest in the safe sex passports and online health certificates, Paternoster told AFP.
