A rise in the rates of sexually transmitted diseases is attributed to the ease of hooking up via social media. The casual and sometimes anonymous sexual encounters available instantly via Tinder and with some work via sites like Match.com have multiplied not only the odds of getting lucky, but also of contracting a sexually transmitted disease.
In Rhode Island, a director with the Rhode Island Department of Health notes that between 2013 and 2014, HIV rates increased 33 percent, gonorrhea increased 30 percent and syphilis cases are up 79 percent. Those are the type of earnings that would make stockholders dance, but they’re statistics that are making more and more people weep. HIV is an incurable disease that requires a lifetime of drug treatments to stave off the plague of AIDS, while gonorrhea is increasingly immune to antibiotic treatments. Syphilis is a silent killer and can lead to a host of health problems until it is diagnosed.
While sexually transmitted diseases have been around since people first started having sex, the relative ease of creating a casual encounter has been tied to the loosening of moral fibers. No longer is casual sex frowned upon in society, and combined with the instant gratification of being able to find a willing partner and the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, a perfect storm has emerged.
Southern California has seen a similar rise in sexually transmitted diseases. The two more affected groups are young people under age 18 and members of the LGBT community, according to an NBC News affiliate in Sacramento.