Advertisement STD rates rise in Omaha metro, Douglas County Health Department says Despite a goal to reduce rates by 10 percent, 2016 rates jumped from 4 to 30 percent Share Shares Copy Link Copy

STD rates in the Omaha metro saw a spike in 2016. This is despite a goal by the Douglas County Health Department to reduce STD rates by 10 percent from 2003 to 2016. Specifically, a 4.8 percent increase in Chlamydia cases and a 30.1 percent increase in Gonorrhea cases. Dr. Adi Pour, with the DCHD, called the Gonorrhea increase "disturbing." Dr. Pour says the increase in Gonorrhea cases was among an older group than Chlamydia, people aged 20 to 29 showed the highest rate of Gonorrhea. Dr. Pour also added that social media isn't helping. She said many of the people coming into clinics are using apps to find partners, and often do not know the names of people they're interacting with. "They can't ID them or tell us the name of the partner, do you even have an address or phone number? We need that because it's important for them to come in and get tested, " Dr. Pour said. "You potentially have a group who are positive and never come in for testing." Dr. Pour also noted 80 of the Gonorrhea cases tested positive through new techniques use throat or rectum swabs instead of a urine test. She said STD would not have been detected with the urine screening. She said they are going to look into placing ads on safe sex and the rise of Gonorrhea within some of the dating apps.