Syphilis is making a comeback, and dating apps may be to blame

The number of reported cases are skyrocketing year on year

While most people associate syphilis with the late 19th century and a problem that doesn't exactly exist in the modern world, you couldn't be more wrong.

At the turn of the 21st century, there were only 6,000 reported cases in the U.S., and doctors there were certain that they were on the verge of ridding the world of the disease for good.

However, in 2015, that number had gone over 20,000 cases, with a steady rise of over 20% year-on-year in the last few years.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement stating that while the biggest increase is among the population of men who have sex with men, there has also been a rising percentage of women who contract the disease, which includes a 37% increase on congenital syphilis, where the disease is passed from mother to her unborn child.

Last year, the Rhode Islane Department of Health conducted their own study into their local increasing - including a 30% increase in gonorrhea and 79% increase in syphilis in just one year - and concluded that "high-risk behaviours... including using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters.”

So those who use Tinder, Grindr (or even yesterday's Remain voters only dating app Remainder) and the other dating apps are perhaps to blame for the increase in syphilis.

The disease can go for years, even decades, without giving off any major signs of infection, but the test is very quick, and the treatment is normally a dose of antibiotics, no matter what some of the old school medical adverts used to say...

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