- The Iona Institute - https://ionainstitute.ie -

STI Rates continue to soar

The latest figures from the HSE show that the rate of reported sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) in Ireland continues to soar.

Statutory Notifications of HIV and STIs reported in Ireland via the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) system are compiled every week by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. For the week ending Oct 26th, 2019, there have been 7438 cases of chlamydia already this year, an increase of 1063 on the same week last year [1]. There have also been 2272 cases of Gonorrhoea, an increase of 408 on Oct 26th last year. Likewise, there have been 649 cases of syphilis, 253 more than this time last year.

Ireland is not alone in seeing continued rises in STIs. In October, the New York Times reported that cases of sexually transmitted disease in the US have risen to a “record high” [2].