Results of the first IHA Voting Poll announced

The first online voting poll on the IHA website went live on 13 April 2004. Since then, just under 600 people have taken part by answering two short questions. The responses have provided a useful insight into the types of people who are accessing the website and will allow the IHA to tailor the information available to meet their needs more closely.

Interestingly, only just over half (59%) of respondents have genital herpes, while 18% have facial herpes and 12% have both types of herpes. 11% of those taking part in the poll have neither genital nor facial herpes (this may mean that they are seeking information on behalf of a partner or friend who has herpes, or they may suspect that they have herpes themselves but have yet to be diagnosed). 85% of respondents were visiting the site for the first time while a surprisingly high 9% visited the website once a day.

Charlie Ebel, President of the IHA comments: "It is extremely valuable to gain feedback from users of the website. In the longer term, this will enable us to adapt the content to suit the needs of visitors to the site more closely. For example, it is clear that a relatively high proportion of those accessing the website have facial herpes and in the near future, we will be adding a new, extended section on this type of herpes. We will also be using the voting poll to explore some of the issues associated with herpes, such as stigma - the new set of questions focus on how open people feel they can be about having genital herpes. Other important topics will be discussed during the coming months."

The voting poll will be changed periodically, roughly once every quarter. If you have any suggestions for topics to be covered in future polls, please send your ideas to: herpes@packerforbes.com.

Source:
IHA Online voting poll 13.4.04-4.7.04