Tuesday, November 5, 2024. EDITORIAL
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are an important public health problem both in their scope and in their complications and consequences if not diagnosed and treated early. Throughout the world, there has been an increasing trend in the number of STIs in recent decades.
Available data from the World Health Organization’s STI Strategy Report, published in 2024, suggests that the 2030 targets are far from being achieved, with the trend of increasing rather than decreasing incidence of new STIs.
In our country, the increase in STIs has also not stopped, according to the report “Epidemiological Surveillance of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Spain, 2023”, which was recently published by the National Epidemiological Center of the Carlos III Institute of Health.
Since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhea, syphilis and chlamydia, especially in young men, although age varies depending on the disease. Chlamydia, for example, is more common in people under 25 years of age, unlike lymphogranuloma venereum. The report also warns of the difficulty of comparing incidence rates between autonomous communities due to differences in their surveillance systems. Although all Autonomous Communities have individual case declarations, it is essential to improve the quality of the data, especially regarding the mode of transmission.
Between 2021 and 2023, gonococcal infections increased by 42.6% and syphilis by 24.1%, according to the report. The number of chlamydia increased by 20.7% annually between 2016 and 2023.
To combat the growing problem of STIs, Spain has launched the Plan for the Prevention and Control of HIV and STIs 2021-2030, which aims to eliminate these infections as a public health problem by 2030. The plan is based on a comprehensive approach that covers prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, chronic disease care and improving quality of life, while also addressing stigma and discrimination.
Under this plan, the Ministry of Health and SEIMC have joined forces to develop new guidelines for the management of STI cases.