Guide to Sexually Transmitted Disease Resources on the Internet

The Internet provides patients, clinicians, teachers, and researchers with immediate access to reliable information, authoritative recommendations, and the latest research findings and statistics, but quickly finding the best sources while avoiding the unreliable and obsolete can be a problem. We searched the Internet for the most useful English-language Web sites on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with annotations, in 4 tables: sites for patients, for clinicians and teachers, and for researchers, and sites dedicated to a single STD. In the process, we found that government-sponsored sites tended to have the most reliable information. This held true regardless of the kind of information we were seeking. Several university-sponsored sites contained information that was outdated or erroneous. Commercial and nonprofit sites sometimes evinced a bias that could mislead some readers. Both health care professionals and laypersons seeking information about STDs on the World Wide Web should generally start their search at government-sponsored sites.