STIs trouble health authorities

VICTORIANS are being urged to have tests for sexually transmitted infections as cases of syphilis – particularly in women – continue to rise across the state.

Victoria’s emergence from a three-month lockdown has health authorities worried the “emerging public health concern” will worsen as people socialise.

The Health Department on Monday launched a campaign urging people to be tested for STIs, before the state’s “freedom Friday”.

The department said congenital syphilis – where a baby was born with infectious syphilis – was an emerging public health threat.

Date compiled by the Health Department show there were 76 cases of the sexually transmitted infection in the northwest regional Victorian city of Mildura between January 17 and August.

Of those cases, 50 per cent were in women, while across the rest of the state women accounted for 11 per cent of infectious syphilis cases.

It sparked health authorities to launch a testing campaign targeting residents in Mildura – particularly women.

The next testing campaign will run until Saturday.