The Cypress Health Region has seen instances of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) increase, particularly among teenagers and young adults.

Most prominent has been chlamydia, and 70 percent of such cases were found in teenagers and young adults.

A release from the health region stated that unprotected sex, having multiple and unknown sex partners, alcohol or drug use, having a new partner within the past three months, and having a previous STI all increase the risk of spreading STIs.

A possible contributor to the spike in rates could be attributed to social media.

"There's a multitude of factors, and of course one of the things is the way life is these days with social media," said the health region's consulting medical health officer, Dr. David Torr. "It's so easy to get in touch with people, and people get in contact so much more easily and more freely, so that's just one of a multitude of factors that are contributing to this. But this again is important to open the dialogue and find out what's going on, why is this happening?"

But social media could also be a useful tool in raising awareness.

Dr. Torr said the use of social media is a big part of building communication about STIs, and that it's definitely part of their harm-reduction strategy.

"Certainly there's the information through news media, through social media, and also through other avenues, having that information available as well as social media - that's harm reduction," Dr. Torr said. "And being able to give more details on what sort of things can be done. That's a really good start, I think, for us as far as harm reduction goes."

Not everyone that contracts an STI will experience symptoms, though they can pass it along, so it's important to undergo proper testing and treatment, if necessary.

Dr. Torr said that there's been a 40-percent increase in gonorrhea from last year and that Saskatchewan has had about 500 cases of chlamydia each month.

Additional information can be found on Cypress Health Region's website at

https://cypresshealth.ca/programs-services/public-health/public-health-nursing/communicable-disease-prevention-and-management/.