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A recent study found that between 2021 and 2022 the number of syphilis and chlamydia cases among every 100,000 women across Europe aged 20 to 24 years increased by 50% and 18%, respectively. Among men within the same age group, syphilis and chlamydia diagnoses increased by 41% and 14% respectively.
Another sexually transmitted infection on the rise from 2021 to 2022 across 15 European countries was gonorrhea as cases increased by 48% among young men and women. “The observed increases with a predominance among young women are concerning as untreated Neisseria gonorrhea infection can lead to complications including pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pain and subsequent infertility,” the researchers wrote in their study published in the journal Eurosurveillance.
“Immediate actions are needed to raise awareness among young people about the importance of condom use and testing. Further work is needed to understand the factors driving these increases in order to effectively target public health interventions,” they emphasized. “National experts indicated several possible theoretical hypotheses for factors driving these increases. Changes in testing policies with expansion of free and easily accessible testing (e.g. online) could have improved case detection in some settings, as could a shift towards more sampling from extra-genital sites.”
“However, in the Netherlands, the positivity rate among tests has increased, indicating that the increased diagnoses are not only due to increased testing. Another hypothesis raised was that the N. gonorrhoeae lineages driving this increase among heterosexual populations may cause no or low-grade symptoms or be more transmissible,” they explained.
“It is also possible that the group with the highest increases belongs to a cohort of young people whose social interactions were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic at an age when their first sexual contacts would normally have taken place. This could have resulted in different sexual behaviours after the pandemic in this group compared with previous cohorts,” the researchers added.
The countries included in the study were: Denmark, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.
The researchers observed a worrying trend of 72.6% more reported cases of sexually transmitted infections among young women aged 20 to 24 years in the second half of 2022 and 88.6% more in the first half of 2023. However, among women who were 15-19 years and 25-29 years, the increases in reported cases of STIs were 18.4% and 25.1%, respectively, in the second half of 2022, and 15.3% and 30.4% in the first half of 2023.
In a press release, the director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Andrea Ammon said:
"Addressing the substantial increases in STI cases demands urgent attention and concerted efforts. Testing, treatment and prevention lie at the heart of any long-term strategy. We must prioritize sexual health education, expand access to testing and treatment services, and combat the stigma associated with STIs. Education and awareness initiatives are vital in empowering individuals to make informed choices about their sexual health. Promoting consistent condom use and fostering open dialogue about STIs can help reduce transmission rates."
