Sexually Transmitted Diseases in New Jersey

The rise of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has been seen around the USA. Since 2014, the country has faced a substantial increase in sexually infected people. For six years, America has had 1.8 million cases of chlamydia, almost 600,000 cases of gonorrhea; around 36,000 people were infected with syphilis (“Healthwise: Sexually transmitted diseases on the rise in NJ,” 2017). Numbers continue to rise, and the situation is getting worse.

Judging by all the above, the US is suffering from an STDs outbreak. There are seven most common STDs in the US: the health immunodeficiency virus (HIV), different kinds of herpes, syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, and trichomoniasis (Gholipour, 2014). The topic is important for all people around the globe because the US is not alone in evidencing the rise of STDs.

Regrettably, New Jersey is facing the same issue, but the state does not rank high for STDs among other regions of the country. However, people in New Jersey continue to get infected by such diseases (Astudillo, 2019). This fact makes this problem relevant to this part of the US. Till this moment, nobody has found a definite reason for the growing numbers not only in New Jersey but all over the country (“Rising STD numbers in Hawaii linked to online dating,” 2019). Some health officials made a statement that dating apps should be blamed for the current increase of STD cases all over the US.

Many questions regarding STDs in New Jersey still need answers. Firstly, it is necessary to identify the main reason for the increase in infection cases in New Jersey. Secondly, it is necessary to define whether the situation in the state is already critical, or it is still reasonable. Thirdly, there is a need to observe the scales of the spread of STDs in New Jersey. Fourthly, the objective of the research is to figure out whether the authorities have to do something immediately, or there is nothing to be worried about.

The cases of sexually transmitted diseases are growing in New Jersey, but scales are not extremely worrisome. The state needs further development in sexual education. The paper proposes a following hypothesis: the reason for the growth of new sexually transmitted disease cases is dating apps as they contributed to the alleviation of establishing sexual relationships. The goal of this research is to get the broad image of the situation with sexually transmitted diseases in New Jersey and find out whether dating apps are the reason for the increase of new infection cases.

Literature Review

The research will use the necessary statistics on the STDs in New Jersey, two evidence-based research articles, two current event articles, and three previous event articles. It is rational to observe used scholar articles that were taken from journals. The article Social Media to Blame for the Sharp Rise in STDs by C. Noor, and B. Widner analyzes 19 most widespread social media and dating apps such as Tinder, Badoo, Facebook, Instagram, Grindr, and others. The authors try to find the correlation between the development of phone apps and the rise of STDs by building a model that estimates the level of STDs spread for the race and ethnic groups. The study bases on the statistics of STDs in Arizona state and claims that phone apps and social media have nothing to do with the recent increase of people infected with STDs.

Another article Mobile phone, social media usage, and perceptions of delivering social media safer sex intervention for adolescents from two countries by J. Cornelius, C. Whitaker-Brown, T. Neely, A. Kennedy, A. Okoro, compares two countries. Researchers have analyzed the data collected from Botswana and the US as they have the same level of new infections each year. The participants of the study have been asked a range of different questions on their awareness of STDs and the use of phone dating apps.

Other articles describe the current and previous situation with STDs in New Jersey and give information on the changes throughout the decades in this state. The research has found more similarities than differences in using the phones and social media by the participants of two countries. Moreover, it has been explained that it is more vital to provide sexual education among adolescents that to blame phone apps in the rise of STDs.

Methodology

This research paper pursues finding any link between the rise of STDs among population and dating apps. If this correlation between STDs is discovered, this fact might be used regarding New Jersey state as the same approach works for any part of the country in case of finding out that phone apps are the reason for the higher levels of STDs. If dating apps influence the increase of the STDs, it will prove the point that they can be blamed for the spread of infection cases in New Jersey. It is also necessary to analyze the existing data on the STDs in New Jersey state in order to achieve the objective of understanding the situation with STDs in this region and estimate the scale and the threat level.

Results

Hypothesis has appeared to be wrong as researchers have not found any correlation between the rise STDs and the popularization of dating apps. Moreover, it is claimed that the situation is vice versa, and such applications help to decrease the number of STD cases (Noor & Widner, 2017).

All socioeconomic factors were considered: population of the state and its population density, race and ethnicity of participants, their income, and even education. However, there is no link between these two phenomena, and we cannot name dating apps as the reason for the infection cases increase. Besides, the authors of the research emphasize that early papers attempted to find the correlation (Noor & Widner, 2017). They analyzed the connection between erotic advertisements for the increase of HIV cases but had no success.

As to the comparison of the situation in the US and Botswana, the study showed that the fundamental reason for the further spread of STDs is sexual illiteracy. Most participants “do not believe that it can happen to them,” or even if some of them were warned about the risks of getting STDs, they “do not listen to the warnings and use protection.” (Cornelius, 2019, p. 36). That is the reason for the spread of STDs and, as it turns out, date apps have nothing to do with the increase in infections, because many people simply ignore fundamental rules. Whether that is not following hygiene regulations and rules of having safe sex or the lack of knowledge how to protect yourself from unwanted diseases such as STDs.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New Jersey state ranked quite high for some STDs: the state is ninth for chlamydia, 13th for gonorrhea, and 17th for syphilis (“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance,” 2018).

New Jersey performed still much better than the other states and ranked 43rd for overall STDs (O’Brien, 2016). Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that each year these numbers have been growing up as it is clear from the comparison with the previous data. In 2012 there were around 35,000 cases of STDs, but nowadays, this number increased significantly. Statistics say that more than 47,000 people were infected with STDs in 2018 (“State of New Jersey Department of Health,” 2018). The numbers are high enough, but in comparison with other states, New Jersey has acceptable performance.

Conclusion

Some officials claim that the reason for the issue is dating apps that are so popular among young people. The research has checked this statement, and it has been found out that phone apps do not correlate with the growth of such diseases. Although the research has not proved that the main reason for the continuing growth of the number of STD cases is the popularization of dating applications, another answer has been found out. One of the crucial causes of the rise of STDs not only in New Jersey but in the whole country is sexual illiteracy. Many people do not listen to the warnings that they are given and ignore precaution measures. It leads to the aggravation of the problem that is discussed in this paper. The way of solving it is sexual education and enhancing the credibility of specialists’ advice.

Besides, this work defined the scale of the STDs in New Jersey and compared numbers of different states. New Jersey does have the problem of STDs, and the situation is quite alarming in some cases like the spread of chlamydia or gonorrhea. Nonetheless, the state has acceptable statistics and there are no reasons for reporting about emergency, but it still has to be paid more attention. The authorities should find ways of declining the levels of infection cases until it is too late.

References

Astudillo, C. Why STD rates are surging, a ranking of all 21 N.J. counties. (2019). True Jersey. Web.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2017. (2018). Web.

Cornelius, J., Whitaker-Brown, C., Neely, T., Kennedy, A., & Okoro, A. (2019). Mobile phone, social media usage, and perceptions of delivering social media safer sex intervention for adolescents from two countries. Adolescence Health Medical Therapy, 10, 29-37.

Healthwise: Sexually transmitted diseases on the rise in NJ. (2017). My Central Jersey. Web.

Gholipour, B. (2014). Hidden STD Epidemic: 110 Million Infections in the US. Web.

Noor, C., & Widner B. (2017). Social Media to Blame for the Sharp Rise in STDs. Social Sciences, 78 (6), 1-12.

O’Brien, K. Why STDs are up in N.J., a ranking of all 21 counties in the state (2016). True Jersey. Web.

Rising STD numbers in Hawaii linked to online dating: ‘More chances to get infections‘, USA today, (2019). Web.

State of New Jersey Department of Health, New Jersey State Health Assessment Data interactive tools. (2018). Web.

Find out your order's cost