UNSAFE PANDEMIC SEX AND CLINIC CLOSURES HAVE LED TO RISE IN STIs

A MEDICAL expert says people are “running around” with sexually transmitted diseases because sexual health clinics are closed for testing.

Dr Jack Lambert, a consultant in sexually transmitted infections

(STIs) at the Mater hospital in Dublin, said emergency cases presenting to his team represent the “tip of the iceberg”.

“My assumption, based on the emergency cases we have seen in the last three months, is that there are a lot of people running around with STIs,” he said.

“Some people have not been socially distancing for the last three months, some people have not been practising safe sex.

“Anecdotally, I have seen people presenting with syphilis, with gonorrhoea and chlamydia and my team at the Mater hospital have seen emergency patients presenting sick with these infections, mostly men, some women.”

He said cases suggest that the sex trade has continued through the pandemic and that high-risk groups continued to have “risky sex”.

Dr Lambert’s comments follow the release of new figures that show sharp falls in the rate of sexually transmitted infections in the first five months of this year.

The period coincides with the three-month lockdown, which curbed social interaction and shut down pubs and night life.

Dr Lambert said he thinks the “message” that STIs are down “is not quite accurate” because it is more likely explained by the unavailability of sexual health clinics.

Latest statistics from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre recorded that chlamydia infections reduced by 21pc, gonorrhoea by 18pc, genital herpes by 31pc and syphilis by 25pc compared with the same period last year.