Swipe right? Dating apps could be to blame for a huge SURGE in STDs

Whiling away a boring Tuesday evening on Tinder has become part and parcel of our generation's down-time, and while we hope a bad date is the worst that will come of it, unfortunately that couldn't be further from the truth.

Swiping right and hooking up might be the start of a modern-day fairytale, but it can also lead to some serious implications for your reproductive and general health.

According to a statement released by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, syphilis is on the rise in recent years going from 6,000 in the US at the start of the millennium to a whopping 20,000 just last year.

Having researched the rising numbers associated with the sexually transmitted disease, the Rhode Island Department of Health came to the conclusion that our habit of swiping right may play a bigger part in the worrying pattern than many of us realise.

Commenting on the increase in both gonorrhea and syphilis, officials deduced that "high-risk behaviours,  including using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters” may be responsible for the recent statistics.

And while many STDs are curable with the right medication, these statistics are definitely something to think about the next time…