SANTA CRUZ – Syphilis and gonorrhea rates have skyrocketed in Santa Cruz County in the past five years, especially among young people, according to the county public health department.

The rise in rates locally – 104 percent for syphilis and 122 percent for gonorrhea between 2011 and 2015 – echoes statewide trends.

The reason behind the rise is unknown, but local public health workers have their theories: an increased use of dating apps that lead to more anonymous sex, an ineffective sexual education program in public schools and a decreased use of condoms.

WHAT’S AT RISK?

Both syphilis and gonorrhea are infections transmitted through genital, anal and oral sex.

Syphilis is characterized by firm, round and painless sores, generally on the genitals, anus or mouth. As the infection progresses, skin rashes on the palms and soles of the feet, swollen lymph nodes, hair loss and fever may follow. In its latest stages, syphilis can affect the body’s major organs.

Infected mothers can also spread syphilis to their unborn babies.

In 2015, 51 Santa Cruz County residents were diagnosed with syphilis, a record for the county, up from 45 the previous year. One baby was also diagnosed with syphilis, contracted from the mother – a rare case, said Paula Haller, a county public health nurse. Locally, 84 percent of syphilis cases were men, and 60 percent were younger than 35.

The county likely has more people with syphilis who just haven’t been tested, Haller said.

“Talk to your provider if you feel like you have questions or you want to get tested,” Haller said. “Talk to your partner and ask when the last time they were tested for STDs. If you are diagnosed with an STD, let your partners know so they can get timely treatment.”

Gonorrhea also disproportionately affects young people, though men and women are more equally diagnosed.

The tricky thing with gonorrhea is that it sometimes doesn’t have any obvious symptoms, said Haller.

When symptoms do occur, they include: a burning sensation when urinating; a green, white or yellow discharge; anal itching; soreness and bleeding. Untreated gonorrhea can lead to infertility and increased risk to HIV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WHY THE RISE?

Local public health providers say they don’t know for certain why rates of syphilis and gonorrhea are rising in the county and the state.

Several local providers blame an increased use of mobile apps such as Tinder and Grindr, where people can find anonymous sex.

Beth Hyde, a family nurse practitioner at UC Santa Cruz, said she’s noticed an increased use of these apps on campus.

“That has caused some changes in how people meet their sexual partners, and has changed and resulted in an increase in anonymous hookups,” said Hyde. “And it also has broken down some of the more traditional social barriers, so for example, it didn’t used to be that you had students interacting with a lot of people downtown.”

Hyde said she couldn’t release the student clinic’s data due to privacy concerns, but said she’s seen a rise in rates of syphilis and gonorrhea on campus in the last five years. She described a spike in syphilis last winter, and in gonorrhea last fall.

The campus has increased its testing for these diseases, but the rise in diagnoses can’t be completely explained by the increase of testing – there’s other factors at work, Hyde said.

Alison Hayes, a senior health educator at UCSC, said she urges students to “swab the parts that you have sex with. Your throat, your anus and your vagina might give you very different results than if you pee in a cup.”

When the clinic launched its “Swab It” campaign recently, urging students to test the right parts, more gonorrhea cases were identified, Hayes said.

Besides the rise in mobile apps, Hayes also blames a lack of sex education for the increase in syphilis and gonorrhea among young people.

Typically, sex education in public schools teaches children how eggs are fertilized, but doesn’t cover what causes pregnancy, how HIV is transmitted and what types of sex are riskier for STDs.

“We don’t really contextualize sex education, that allows young people to practically apply it when young people start becoming sexually active,” Hayes said.

Kalila Zunes-Wolfe, an education and prevention coordinator at the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, said she thinks another reason for the rise in diagnoses might be a “lax” attitude about sex among young people.

“I do think that young people these days, (aged) 18-24, they really did completely miss the HIV epidemic, when that really did start to be a huge thing in the U.S.,” Zunes-Wolfe said. “And they either have access to birth control, which is great, but I think that some of them really don’t think about condoms anymore.”