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to screen for STDs and track down the sexual partners of people who have been infected.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Figures for the first four months of this year show that rates of some sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise in South Dakota.
• State Epidemiologist Lon Kightlinger said syphilis rates haven't been this high since the 1970s. HIV rates are reaching levels not seen since the 1980s.
• HIV rates are up 129 percent through April this year compared to the 5-year median.
• South Dakota typically has high rates of chlamydia and the rate is 18 percent higher so far this year than the 5-year median. About 168 of every 100,000 South Dakotans have chlamydia.
• Syphilis rates are up more than one thousand percent so far this year compared to the 5-year median. There are 43 cases of syphilis in the state so far this year. There were 49 cases for all of 2013.
• Syphilis affects 5.3 out of every 100,000 nationally and 5.2 out of every 100,000 in South Dakota.
• Kightlinger said most of the past syphilis infections came from outside South Dakota.
• "Now it's homegrown syphilis in the state," he said.
• Physicians and other health care providers are hoping to quash the trend. Physicians, medical students and residents gathered in Sioux Falls Wednesday for a presentation on "Syphilis 2014: The Great Imitator Returns."
• Dr. Donna Sweet is a professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita and spoke at the Sioux Falls event. She said that syphilis rates across the nation have doubled since 2000.
• She said the infection is called the "great imitator" because its symptoms can be confused with other STDs or other problems affecting the heart, eyes and neurological system.
• She said the increase in syphilis cases is related to the increase in HIV cases in the state, because people with HIV are more susceptible to syphilis.
• "You're going to see more of all the sexually transmitted diseases," Sweet said. "They're all co-travelers."
• Sweet attributes the rise in STD rates to travel, drug use and misperceptions that oral sex is harmless or STDs are only found in big cities.

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