Martha's Case: The Unwelcome Phone Call

You chose No: that is incorrect.

The correct answer is Yes.

It is quite possible that her partner's "drip" is a urethritis - a syndrome characterized by inflammation of the urethra with or without discharge. Urethritis is caused by sexually transmitted pathogens that have an incubation period of a few days up to a few weeks, and are frequently transmitted by persons who are asymptomatic. In this case either Martha or her partner could have passed on the infection even though they were without symptoms. But regardless of whether Martha was infected at the time of intercourse, she may be infected now.

Partner notification is not about finding a culprit. Its purpose is to limit the spread of disease and to decrease the risk of complications in partners who may not have symptoms.

In this case, the infected partner (the index case) has notified Martha (the contact case) of her exposure without involving care providers or a public health nurse. If Martha had been informed by public health personnel, she would not know who had named her as a contact. Public health officials supply contacts with the information that they need to be properly assessed and treated but names are never revealed. Confidentiality is paramount in the partner notification process.

To learn more about partner notification in general, click here.