Apps to blame for STIs

FRISKY singles on the prowl could be picking up more than they expect with statistics showing a sharp rise in sexually transmitted infections since the launch of dating apps.

Gold Coast Medical Association past president Gary Swift said the newly single on Tinder and Grindr were the newest group at risk as they had often forgotten about safe-sex.

Queensland Health report Chlamydia cases have risen 13 per cent since September 2012 when Tinder first launched. Gonorrhoea cases soared by 10 per cent in that same period.

Studies in Canada and the US show that using an app for obtaining sex could be linked with increased STI rates.

Dr Swift said the city’s healthcare professionals feared an epidemic of STI if sexual habits were unchecked.

“If this generation is going to be on Tinder and Grindr, users need to be aware of the risks they’re taking when they have sex with someone that they don’t know very well,” he

DR GARY SWIFT said. “We’ve always seen oneoff flings here and there but if it’s going to be a way of life, we need to be careful.

“There’s no question that, as a society with changing behaviours, we need to reeducate.”

Dr Swift said people indulging in casual sex with strangers were more at risk of getting an STI.

“They don’t necessarily know each other ... they’re just meeting for sex,” he said.

“On pure common sense ground (in the past) if you felt like having sex with someone you’d never met before, you had to hunt around the club scene or approach someone on the street.

“It’s obviously a lot harder than pressing a button and connecting immediately with someone who also wants to have sex as a one-off thing. It (Tinder and swingers parties) is making having casual sex a lot easier.

“It has a potential, if people aren’t careful, of spreading infections.”

Gold Coast Health Director of Sexual Health doctor Maree O’Sullivan said people often didn’t realise the consequences of their actions.

“It facilitates the increase in the rate of partner change and that’s one of the classic factors of the spread of STIs,” she said.

“I think the problem is a lot of people see STI as something simple where you just take a pill and it goes away.”

Dr Swift said people needed to be checked for infections more often if they were having sex with more partners.

“The other thing, particularly on the Gold Coast, is marriages breaking down and people re-partnering and entering the single scene at that age,” he said.

“(They) assume that their generation is no longer at risk ... but that’s not true.

“We need to match our sexual education with what’s actually happening in reality.”