Unhealthy sex life
Doctor tells of surge in infections link to ‘more parties, more partners’
WILD parties and multiple sexual partners have led to a surge in sexually transmitted infections in Ireland, an expert said yesterday.
The health service is struggling to keep up with the number of people coming forward, with waiting lists reported for the treatment of sexual diseases.
Dr Aisling Loy, a consultant of sexual health and HIV care at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, said recent figures on STIS such as chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis show a jump as a result of people mixing more post-pandemic.
She added: “Syphilis is the one that is genuinely up and that’s up about 25% since 2019.
“People are socialising a bit more since the lockdown happened.
“We definitely on the ground are getting reports of people having wild parties and you know, many more sexual partners than they were used to and I guess that comes with any curtailment that’s happened in history.”
Dr Loy said in the first three months of 2019 there were 118 new diagnoses of HIV compared to 250 in the same period of 2020.
However, she explained that it’s her understanding that it’s mostly people who have moved to Ireland – mainly from Latin America – and are therefore transferring their care.
She said: “We are seeing a big influx but it’s not that they’re new diagnoses, it’s more that people coming here already have been diagnosed and on treatment.”
Dr Loy told how, anecdotally, sexual health consultants are hearing that “condoms are not being used as much, which will naturally lead to an increase in STIS”.
She added that there has been an active response by the HSE and an online testing system rolled out across 22 counties.
But Dr Loy said despite this, “we’re still not able to keep up with the levels of infections that we’re seeing”.
And she confirmed there was a “jump” in figures for increases in chlamydia, up by 44% and gonorrhoea, up 61% but stressed this was due to a demand in services after people were not diagnosed during the pandemic.
Dr Loy told RTE’S Claire Byrne show: “I would say that for the first quarter of 2022, we really struggled to meet the needs of our patients.
“For the first time ever, we’ve long waiting lists to get in to see us.”