THE NUMBER OF STIs recorded in 2012 dropped slightly – but cases of gonorrhoea are at the highest number ever recorded in Ireland.

New figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show there were 1,110 cases of gonorrhea recorded last year – an increase of one third on the previous year.

Chlamydia remains the single most widespread STI, making up almost half of the total number of STIs.

Of the almost 13,000 STIs in Ireland last year, chlamydia accounted for 48 per cent of notifications.

Chlamydia is largely asymptomatic, with around half of men and 70 to 80 per cent of women not showing any symptoms at all with the infection. It can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women which can lead to infertility and increase the risk of miscarriage.

In its provisional report for 2012 released this week, the HPSC also found:

• There were 565 cases of syphillis in 2012
• There were almost 1,340 cases of genital herpes
• Separately there were just over 2,000 cases of ano-gential warts
• There were a total of 1,542 cases of non-specific urethritis

The HSPC noted that the data is still provisional and that two of the eight HSE areas provided incomplete data for the final three months of the year. A full report will be produced in the coming months.

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