Severe Epidemic of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Over 20 million Infections Sweeping the U.S.

You might not want to snuggle up with your Valentine when health experts just released information about an ongoing epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases sweeping the country, with over 20 million new cases diagnosed every year.

People between the ages of 15-24, or approximately a quarter of the U.S. population, are on the rise for STIs, according to a study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Catherine Lindsay Satterwhite, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told NBC News: "STIs take a big health and economic toll on men and women in the United States, especially our youth."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study focused on the eight most common sexually transmitted diseases in America: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, herpes, human papillomavirus, hepatitis B, HIV, and trichomoniasis.

However, director of Public Health Seattle and King County HIV/STD Program and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD, Matthew Golden, said he believed the epidemic was being driven by two infections: chlamydia and human papillomavirus, known as HPV.

Yet Golden admits that both diseases are easily preventable, by pursuing revenues such as school-based access to the HPV vaccine, which is seen as an effective tool for fighting cervical, oral, anal and penile cancers that can cause genital warts.

While in most cases, the human immune system is able to clear cases of the HPV virus up on its own, a small percentage is diagnosed every year and can develop into more serious complications.

Chlamydia, a bacterial infection, can also be easily treated once diagnosed. Many of those carrying the disease however, are never diagnosed, and if untreated, this can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and ectopic pregnancies. 

Certainly not the best news for Valentine's Day.