GREENE Co., Mo. The number of people testing positive for sexually transmitted diseases in Greene County is at an all-time high.

KOLR10 spoke with the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and officials at the Aids Project of the Ozarks about why STD’s are on the rise.

“For chlamydia, you’ve seen approximately 20% increase over the past 5 years, gonorrhea that number jumps up to anywhere from like 50% to 60% increase, so you can see that’s even higher,” said Kendra Findley, the administrator of community health and epidemiology at the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

Findley said syphilis is the STD that’s increased the most, “that number here locally as well as nationally, that number is about 70% to 80%increase in cases over the past five years.”

But there’s a range of issues that are causing this increase, Findley said, “some of it’s going to be we need more education or prevention education out in the community. Part of it is a lack of consistent use of condoms. Another small piece of this puzzle as well, is we have the ability now through the internet or through our smartphone apps to meet people in a way that we weren’t able to in the past. So it’s a lot easier to meet people than it was, even ten years ago.”

While the most common STD’s are treatable, you still need to take action as soon as possible.

“If it’s not treated, it can lead to sterility, it can lead to all sorts of medical issues,” said Lynne Meyerkord, executive director at the Aids Project of the Ozarks.

“Anybody who is sexually active will be exposed to a sexually transmitted infection in their lifetime,” Findley said.

As for other STD’s like HIV, Meyerkord said not having symptoms doesn’t mean you don’t have the disease.

“What we recommend is condom usage, if someone knows they’re positive, come in, get care, get your viral load down, you’re going to live longer, and you’re not going to transmit HIV to your partner,” explained Meyerkord.

“If you’re having unprotected sex, you need to get out there and be tested,” Findley said.

But it doesn’t take too long for the virus to be detected.

Meyerkord said, “some people are saying that it can be four years before HIV shows up, that’s not true, the test that we have today, sometimes it’ll show up as quickly as three weeks, but very rarely is it any longer than six months.”

Both the Greene county health department and the Aids Project of the Ozarks offer free STD testing.

The test is a finger prick of blood, and you can get your results back in 20 minutes.