iCondom, a new free iPhone condom locator application, and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) have partnered to launch a free condom locator application for the city of PhiladelphiaiCondom Philly.
iCondom Philly will supplement the PDPH, Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Control Program's existing efforts to reduce the alarming rates of STDs among adolescents in Philadelphia. iCondom Philly will build upon the existing iCondom application, which is already being used in large metropolitan cities worldwide, to allow users to find the nearest free condom distribution site.
Recent U.S. surveillance reporting indicates that Philadelphia is in the top ten among large US cities for reportable STDs, with African-Americans and adolescents being disproportionately affected. New data also indicates that teens infected with an STD are at greater risk for having a subsequent HIV infection.
iCondom Philly will launch in tandem with the new PDPH STD Control Program's teen-centered website TakeControlPhilly.org which will include resources for sexual health education, videos on how to properly use condoms, and a new program to request condoms by mail for youth who may be uncomfortable picking up their own.
"When we designed iCondom, we had in mind that the application could be easily developed to meet the needs of each city's publicly run condom programs that exist worldwide. Philadelphia immediately understood how useful the application could be in targeting youth 11 to 19 years old," said Morgane Danielou, founder of iCondom. The founders designed the application so that all users could add their preferred locations. Crowd sourcing has proved to be highly efficient and users have been adding location in countries such as Brazil, Spain, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, and the U.S.
iCondom was the first application to help users find the nearest condom dispensing locations and provide them with access to free condoms no matter where the user is, 24/7. Based on a geolocation platform (Google Maps) and crowd sourcing, iCondom locates the condom dispensing site nearest to the user.
iCondom and iCondom Philly can be downloaded from the Apple App Store.