Alberta Health Services officials say sexually transmitted infections have reached outbreak levels in the province.

New numbers say cases of gonorrhea in 2015 are up 80 per cent from 2014 and the rate of infectious syphilis more than doubled.

AHS says a key reason why the rates are so high is the use of social media to set up sexual encounters and Senior Medical Officer Dr. Gerry Predy said they’ll have to use social media themselves to fight the problem.

“Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and whatever else comes along as far as social media goes, more intensely than we have,” he said. “If we can identify the websites that people are going to hook up, then we can target the emails that are accessing those websites for the ads that we want to get out.”

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Karen Grimsrud explained the specific jumps for both men and women when it comes to gonorrhea.

“The overall female rate has increased in 2015 has increased by 93 per cent that’s compared to 2014 and the overal increase in men is about 66 per cent,” she said.

The officials said the problem is not just unique to Alberta, but the province’s STI rates are the highest they’ve been in decades and show no signs of levelling off.