Short answer
Partner notification is exposure alerting with three delivery routes, self, provider-assisted, or medication handoff, scoped by look-back windows and governed by two non-negotiables: voluntariness (no one is compelled) and safety planning (no one is endangered).
Done well, it treats partners before complications develop and breaks transmission chains.
Done poorly or not at all, infections ping-pong indefinitely between untreated people.
Continue with Expedited Partner Therapy: US State Differences for the directly connected guidance.
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- Patient referral (you tell them): fastest with cooperative ex-partners; works best with clinician coaching and concrete scripts.
- Provider referral (disease-intervention specialists contact partners discreetly): professional, sourceless. Partners learn of exposure without learning from whom; ideal for difficult, distant, or unsafe dynamics.
- EPT medication handoff (treatment packs or prescriptions without examination, where legal): highest completion rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea partners.
Mix routes per partner as needed. Different exes warrant different methods, and using all three across a partner list is normal practice, not overkill.
Window scoping by infection
- 60 days standard for bacterial STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis). All partners in that window notified regardless of symptoms.
- Stage-extended for syphilis (months, longer for late stages).
- Longer for HIV (ongoing transmission networks get partner-services engagement, not just recent names).
Symptom-free partners are included always. Most infected partners feel fine, and “feeling fine” has never been an exemption criterion.
What partners hear (and don’t)
Exposure notification with infection named, testing and treatment instructions with specific next steps, abstinence guidance through clearance, retesting schedules, and resource connections (clinic locations, cost options).
In provider referral: never source identification, never blame assignment, never clinical details about the index patient.
The message is health information with an action plan. Engineered to produce clinic visits, not conflict.
Safety architecture for difficult situations
Violence screening before notification planning (clinicians ask routinely. Disclose safety concerns plainly).
Provider-only routes for unsafe dynamics, with professionals experienced in high-risk notification.
Anonymous-partner strategies: venue-based outreach, app-based notification tools, and timeframe-and-place descriptions without names. Ask clinics about local protections for notifiers where relevant.
The rule is absolute: never risk violence for notification. Alternative routes exist precisely for this, and no public-health goal overrides personal safety.
When to seek care
At diagnosis (notification planning starts immediately. Same visit, not “later”), for provider-referral activation with contact details, and for EPT eligibility assessment covering partners who won’t attend clinics.