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The growing spread of sexually transmitted disease in Canada may be at least partly the result of the Internet dating boom, and the rapid intimacy that can develop before online couples even meet, some public-health experts say.

The phenomenon seems particularly relevant to middle-aged and older people, who appear to be flooding to dating websites, and are generally less apt to practise safe sex, suggest some analysts.

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“By the time you meet and start having sexual activity, perhaps you have this sense that you’re really comfortable and you know this person well,” said Pam Krause, executive director of the Calgary Sexual Health Centre.

“So there’s no need to negotiate safer sex.”

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The per capita rate of new syphilis cases across Canada has soared almost 10-fold since 2000, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. Chlamydia rates, after falling through most of the 1990s, have jumped 66% since 2000, with more than 87,000 total new cases in 2009.