Sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis and gonorrhea seem
cutely archaic in the post AIDS world -the way images of people
chain-smoking in offices look strange today.So it may come as a surprise
to know that the US is looking at its highest rate of syphilis
infection in recent memory. In fact, the number of syphilis cases has
been mounting steadily for almost a decade. In November, the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
released a report that said syphilis rates rose for both genders in
every region of the US in 2014. “Syphilis had become relatively rare in
developed countries since the discovery of penicillin and... it looked
as though the United States had all but eliminated the disease,“ writes
Naomi Sharp in The Atlantic. But in 2002, the downward trend began to
reverse. In fact, rates of the other two members of the archaic STD trio
-chlamydia and gonorrhea -have also risen simultaneously for the first
time. And it might be all related to dating apps and the casual hook-up
culture they promote.
Some
health officials point to apps like Tinder and Grindr that facilitate
casual sex between partners who don't know each other's sexual
histories.Epidemiologists believe dating apps can pose a diagnostic
problem, since controlling the spread of syphilis -which is notoriously
difficult to pin down as a cause of illness because it mimics the
symptoms of many other diseases -relies on being able to notify an
infected person's sexual partners.
“It's easier to meet partners [through dating apps] and not necessarily have identifying information and not be able to track them down later,“ says a CDC doctor. She also suggests that people might be less careful now that the threat of HIV AIDS is less immediate than it was in the 1990s, or that partners might use strategies to prevent HIV transmission that aren't as effective for other STDs. Condoms, for instance, are a good precaution but not a reliable prevention method for syphilis.
“It's easier to meet partners [through dating apps] and not necessarily have identifying information and not be able to track them down later,“ says a CDC doctor. She also suggests that people might be less careful now that the threat of HIV AIDS is less immediate than it was in the 1990s, or that partners might use strategies to prevent HIV transmission that aren't as effective for other STDs. Condoms, for instance, are a good precaution but not a reliable prevention method for syphilis.
