Sexually Transmitted Infection Cases Hit Decade High Across Europe
The agency said widening gaps in testing and prevention helped drive record infections, while congenital syphilis cases nearly doubled to 140.
- On Thursday, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that gonorrhoea and syphilis reached record highs in 2024, with 106,331 gonorrhoea cases and 45,577 syphilis cases recorded across Europe.
- Changing sexual habits and widening gaps in testing are fueling the surge, the ECDC said; 13 out of 29 reporting countries still charge out-of-pocket costs for basic STI tests, creating systemic barriers to diagnosis.
- Congenital syphilis cases nearly doubled from 78 in 2023 to 140 in 2024, while gonorrhoea cases have surged 303% since 2015, according to ECDC findings highlighting specific vulnerable populations and long-term trends.
- Bruno Ciancio, head of the ECDC's Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases unit, warned that untreated infections cause "severe complications, such as chronic pain and infertility and, in the case of syphilis, problems with the heart or nervous system."
- Experts urge national healthcare bodies to take "decisive action" to increase access to testing and prevention services, with the World Health Organization Europe setting a 2030 elimination target of fewer than one case per 100,000 live births.
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A new sexually transmitted bacterium has been detected in Barcelona. Nine confirmed cases, all cured, but the species seems to be new. Its appearance questions the evolution of sexual infections in Europe.
Sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea and syphilis are surging across Europe
Sexually transmitted infections are surging across Europe, with gonorrhea cases up 303% since 2015 and syphilis more than doubling. Spain has become the epicenter, reporting over 37,000 gonorrhea and 11,500 syphilis infections in 2024, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Key Data Gonorrhea: 106,331 cases across Europe in 2024, a 303% increase since 2015. Syphilis: 45,550 cases, more than double the 2015 f…
The number of detected cases of gonorrhea has tripled in ten years, while the number of cases of syphilis has doubled. ‘The...
A study by Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona has identified nine cases of transmission among humans of dermatophyllosis, a skin disease usually associated with animals, which can affect many domestic and wild species. Animals can spread it to people sporadically, but so far no cases of infection among humans have been documented.Read more...
The pathogen was diagnosed from December and cured with antibiotics.
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