For the second year in a row, Flathead County has experienced a growth in cases of sexually transmitted diseases. The jump has mirrored a trend across Montana.

In 2015, Flathead County had 408 cases of chlamydia, according to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. That’s a growth of more than 100 cases over the year before.

The county also recorded 25 cases of gonorrhea, up from four in 2014.

Judy Nielsen of the department’s STD-HIV Prevention Section said that while local health departments are doing a good job of diagnosing people carrying sexually transmitted diseases, they have struggled to get the word out to their partners.

“Once it gets into the population, if we don’t reach the partners it will continue to spread,” Nielson said. “We break the transmission cycle by reaching their partners.”

Flathead County was one out of eight counties in Montana to report cases of syphilis and was in the top five counties for its number of HIV cases, which fell from 40 to 31.

The growth of sexually transmitted disease cases has been a statewide issue.

Montana’s cases of gonorrhea have doubled each year since 2013, reaching more than 800 in 2015. In 2014, Montana had 433 cases and in 2013 there were 224.

“You could expect a gradual rise, that as the population in Montana grows, those numbers might grow with it,” Nielsen said. “But we did not predict or expect the numbers we’re seeing.”

According to the department, the number of chlamydia cases reported in 2015 was similar to the prior year, but the general trend continued to show a steady increase with more than 4,100 cases reported.

While HIV numbers have experienced slower growth, health officials are concerned that additional infections could match the increase in sexually transmitted diseases in the next few years.

People with untreated ulcers from other sexually transmitted diseases increase their susceptibility to the HIV virus.

Nielson said the highest number of infected people has been between the ages of 15 to 29.

“We don’t know why the young people are taking risks,” she said. “And that concern leads us to the question that’s maybe it’s not being addressed in the schools as much as it used to be.”

Mandie Fleming of the Flathead City-County Health Department said people want to know how to prevent STDs, but often don’t know where to go with their questions.

As a family health educator in the department’s family planning clinic, Fleming said she focuses on reaching younger students in schools. She said it’s important to reach people where they’re at — to teach preventive measures beyond abstinence such as how to use a condom or get regularly screened for sexually transmitted diseases.

“It’s so important for parents and local health officials to feel comfortable talking about it,” Fleming said. “Otherwise, people are getting information from other places — like their friends or the internet — and it’s often the wrong information.”

Nielsen said it’s important for people to understand sexually transmitted diseases are preventable.

She said people who are sexually active should get screened regularly since early diagnosis is essential in preventing transmission and long-term health consequences.

“We worry about people taking risks,” Nielsen said. “We do a hierarchy of prevention, from no sex to limiting your partners, using condoms and monogamy falls right next to abstinence. This can stop spreading by people getting informed.”

For more information on sexually transmitted diseases, testing, and how to protect yourself and your partners, visit www.dphhs.gov. To view testing locations, visit getcheckedmt.org.