Despite cases of several sexually transmitted infections reaching a record level in the U.S., a large majority of people aren't aware of how common they are among the nation's adults, according to newly released survey results.

The poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 36% of those surveyed were aware that STIs such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital herpes, syphilis and human papillomavirus, or HPV, have become more common in recent years, with 38% responding that they "don't know enough to say." An even smaller share – 13% – knew that more than half of people in the U.S. will get an STI sometime during their life.

Those results came even as the poll also found that a slight majority (54%) of those surveyed said they personally knew someone – themselves included – who had ever contracted an STI such as gonorrhea, chlamydia or syphilis. Larger shares of women and younger adults said they personally knew someone who has had an STI, according to a KFF report on the survey .

The poll – which also asked questions about abortion, covered in a separate report – was conducted among a sample of 1,215 U.S. adults aged 18 and over, with an oversampling of women between the ages of 18 and 49.

The survey also found that women (39%) were more aware than men (32%) about how common STIs have become. Black adults (48%) were far more likely to be aware than white adults (33%), researchers found.

Combined cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis accounted for more than 2.4 million cases and reached an all-time high in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

Brittni Frederiksen, a senior policy analyst for women's health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation and a co-author of the KFF report on the survey, tells U.S. News that the "lack of awareness" around how common STIs are was an interesting finding.

"It seems like the public really knows how STIs are transmitted, but there's a little less knowledge around whether they are curable or not," she adds, noting the survey's findings related to HPV in particular.

A little more than half (51%) of survey respondents said they were unsure if HPV is curable with medication or not. Although there is no medical treatment for the virus, a vaccine is recommended for children and the KFF report notes that most people who acquire it will clear the infection "on their own and without health problems." Knowledge around whether other STIs are curable also was mixed: A majority of respondents knew that gonorrhea and chlamydia are curable, for example, while 45% knew that syphilis can be cured.

Despite the relative lack of knowledge in certain areas about sexually transmitted infections, large shares of those surveyed were aware that some individuals who have an STI might not even know it (96%), and that some people might not display symptoms for years after contraction (90%).

Meanwhile, black and Hispanic adults surveyed (13% each) were more worried than white adults (5%) about contracting an STI themselves over the next year, while 20% of respondents from the ages of 18 to 29 expressed concern, compared with an overall share of 8%.

Frederiksen says that some of the more concerning findings from the poll could be addressed with more education around STIs, and referenced the recently formed National STI Coalition as a positive step.