A recent study found a new sexually transmitted disease (STD) that may have been common all along.

The study found that the bacterium Mycloplasma genitalium infects more than 1 percent of people ages 16 to 44 in the United Kingdom. Another study found a similar percentage of people are infected by the same disease in the United States.

Nearly 250,000 people were a part of the study, meaning that the newly found STD is transmitted more commonly than gonorrhea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although some outlets called M. genitalium as a "new" STD, but the bacteria was actually first discovered in 1980. Yet, the disease was not linked to sexual activity until the mid-1990s.

Lisa Manhart, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, said early studies found that people who tested positive for M. genitalium usually would have sexual partners who were infected with the same disease.

The recent study did not find a "new" STD; instead, it found that M. genitalium is more common in people who had at least four sexual partners, adding to the evidence that it is actually an STD.

Meanwhile, the CDC has found that common STDs such as syphilis and gonorrhea have been on the rise in recent years.

Just last year, more than 1.4 million cases of chlamydia were reported making it the highest number of cases of any disease ever reported to the CDC. Just under 20,000 cases of syphilis have been reported last year, a 15 percent increase from 2013. There was also a 27.5 percent increase over 2013 with 458 cases of syphilis found in newborn babies.

"Certainly, this is the first time since 2006 that all three of our notifiable sexually transmitted diseases have increased," said the CDC's Dr. Gail Bolan. "Some of the increases are quite alarming."

Most of the increases were found in young adults. Federal officials said Tuesday that common sexually diseases are on the rise because of reduced funding for public health clinics.

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