Most patients with STIs prefer to inform their partners by telephone or face to face, a study from Australia has found. Patients diagnosed with a bacterial STI at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, over a three-month period in 2010, were studied. Data were extracted on: age, gender, bacterial STI diagnosed, number of sexual partners identified at the treatment visit, number of partners the index case was able to notify, methods used for partner notification and the known outcomes of notification. There were 224 patients diagnosed with one or more of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and infectious syphilis.