Sexually transmitted disease diagnoses of chlamydia and gonorrhea have continued to climb in Iowa, according to data from the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Preliminary data shows 14,695 cases of chlamydia (a 5.8 percent increase from 2017) and 4,839 cases of gonorrhea (28.3 percent increase). There were 283 cases of syphilis (1.7 percent decrease) reported to the state department in 2018, as well.

While the state reports increases in diagnoses of gonorrhea and chlamydia have been reported nationally, it's unclear if the increases are due to increased access to testing, increased transmission or both.

"Regardless of the exact cause of these increases, we do know that more individuals are testing positive," the state department said in a statement. "Whether this indicates a growing trend of increased transmission or simply more individuals seeking testing, it indicates there is more infection than we were previously aware."

State officials also said that they typically see chlamydia diagnosis in younger people (less than 25 years of age) while gonorrhea diagnoses are more common among older age groups.

Chlamydia is the most common STD, both nationally and in Iowa, and can be difficult to detect due to its mild or even nonexistent symptoms.

The Polk County Health Department noted in a statement that many health care providers are now using extra-genital testing, which may partially account for a rise in documented cases.

An underlying cause Polk County officials believe could be behind a rise in documented chlamydia cases is the growing trend of anonymous or semi-anonymous sexual relationships facilitated by social media.

"Social media and the online dating culture has increased the ability to find someone to hook up without even leaving your couch," according to the department. "Online partners are very common, and those partners are harder to track down due to the use of anonymity, so this makes contract tracing difficult, which can lead to the increase of chlamydia numbers."

Like Polk County's documented chlamydia cases (3,111 documented cases in 2017), the Linn County Health Department reports some of the highest numbers of documented gonorrhea cases in the state (355 in 2017) and believes a rise in gonorrhea is the result of newer extra-genital testing while research also points toward anonymous social media-facilitated relationships facilitating its growth.

The Des Moines County Health Department reported historically high numbers of documented gonorrhea cases (357 cases in 2017), as well. Efforts are underway to work with the state health department to gather more data in order to discover underlying causes within the trend.

Polk County officials also noted a direct correlation between education initiatives and successfully documenting and treating STDs.

"We do our students a disservice when they are not learning sex-positive curriculum to encourage safe sex and testing," department officials wrote. "Students still in high school often are stigmatized in regards to STDs and testing so they simply do not get tested. They are also under the impression that if they do get tested at their health care provider, their parents will automatically know they get tested for an STD."

In response to this, Polk County officials say they are trying to provide students and younger people the information about places like their own organization, Planned Parenthood or Primary Health Care where they can go get tested for low cost and their parents won't be notified.

Initiatives are underway at both the state and county level to increase testing and provide better education about STDs to the public and specific at-risk groups.

Follow the Register on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Aaron Calvin can be contacted at acalvin@dmreg.com or on Twitter @aaronpcalvin.