Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis… These three bacterial sexually transmitted infections experienced a marked increase between 2020 and 2022 in mainland France in view of their surveillance in general medicine, according to data published on Tuesday, December 12, by Public health France.
In 2022, the proportion of chlamydia infections increased by 16% compared to 2020, with 102 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, that of gonorrhea by 91%, with 44 cases per 100,000, and that of syphilis jumped by 110 %, at 21 cases per 100,000, conclude researchers from Sorbonne University, Inserm, and the Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health based on feedback from the Sentinels network.
The general practitioners of this network, volunteers, declare and describe each week the number of cases of these three infections, confirmed biologically and seen in consultation.
Diagnoses on the rise
Since 2020, the share of bacterial STI diagnoses as part of screening has increased in general medicine (from 32% to 50% in 2022 for syphilis, from 18.4% to 35.3% for gonorrhea, from 47% to 57.2% for chlamydia), according to a study published in the weekly epidemiological bulletin.
Much more often male, cases with gonorrhea or syphilis had more multiple partners, more history of sexually transmitted infections, more co-infections with HIV and more use of preventive treatment against AIDS (PrEP ) than those with chlamydia, summarize the researchers.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, STIs of bacterial origin have started to increase again in Western countries, after a decline over the previous 20 years in the wake of the AIDS epidemic. At the same time, protection during sexual intercourse, particularly with condoms, has decreased.
A major public health issue
However, “STIs represent a major public health problem due to their transmissibility (to partners and mother-to-fetal), their frequency, the long-term complications they induce (chronic pelvic pain, upper genital infections, infertility, cancer , etc.) and their role in the transmission of HIV”, recalls the study.
Its authors consider it “important to continue efforts in terms of combined screening for all STIs (HIV, bacterial STIs, hepatitis B and C) in patients and their partners, in order to quickly begin treatment and interrupt chains of transmission “.