Saline County Health Department Director Jason Tiller joined in on the KSAL Morning News Thursday to better define a local syphilis outbreak.

On Tuesday, Tiller reported to the Health Advisory Council that 16 cases of syphilis in Saline County had been lab confirmed.

According to Tiller data on those people who are infected is still being analyzed.

He says state-wide statistics provided by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment last year show the bulk of the group in the state that was infected is made up of white men.

“White males over the age of forty is actually the Kansas wide demographic from the 2014 statistics,” Tiller said.

“We don’t have a full view of all the demographics and statistics yet here locally because some of that data takes a while to compile and analyze.”

Moving forward Tiller explained the Health Department has reached out to the public through social media and some schools but is planning a broader campaign aimed at safe behaviors.

“The risky behaviors that cause people to get STD’s – those behaviors are the same so whether you end up with chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis its the behavior of not having safe sex and practicing safe sex that leads to those diseases.”

https://soundcloud.com/ksal-radio/hds-jason-tiller-ksal-morning-news-12-10-15