INDIANAPOLIS (AP): State health officials are urging Indiana’s health care providers to aggressively test patients for syphilis after the state’s syphilis cases surged 70 percent in a single year.

The State Department of Health said Monday that Indiana’s primary, secondary and early latent syphilis cases rose from 297 in 2014 to 505 in 2015.

State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams says the increase in cases of the sexually transmitted disease has continued into 2016.

Syphilis is a bacterial disease that’s spread by direct, skin-to-skin contact during unprotected sex. It’s potentially deadly but is curable with appropriate antibiotics.

Adams says his agency is working with local health officials and health care providers “to make sure patients are getting tested and receive treatment.”

The health department issued a similar advisory about syphilis testing in October.