Latest ECDC report finds Ireland had the highest rate of gonorrhoea infection across 28 European countries in 2024<\/p>\n
The number of sexually transmitted infections (STI) recorded in Ireland fell for the second year in a row in 2025, but remained significantly above pre-pandemic rates, new figures reveal.<\/p>\n
Data released from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) shows that STI rates dropped by eight per cent last year compared to 2024 figures. This brought per capita case numbers down from 400 to 367 per 100,000 population.<\/p>\n
However, incidence of infections including chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis remained well above pre-pandemic rates. Overall STI rates remained 21 per cent higher than those recorded in 2019, when 304 cases per 100,000 population were reported.<\/p>\n
Falls in infection rates seen last year were largely driven by reductions in cases of chlamydia and gonorrhoea, which saw rates fall by 10 and 11 per cent respectively.<\/p>\n
However, both illnesses remain the most common notified to health authorities, with 10,337 chlamydia and 5,325 gonorrhoea incidences recorded in 2025.<\/p>\n
While one-third of all STI cases last year were diagnosed among young people, this group saw a significant decrease of 21 per cent in infection rates compared to 2024.<\/p>\n
Young women and girls saw gonorrhoea rates fall by 50 per cent, while chlamydia rates dropped 21 per cent.<\/p>\n
Among young men and boys, gonorrhoea rates decreased by 25 per cent, while chlamydia rates fell by 19 per cent.<\/p>\n
Nine-in-ten cases of gonorrhoea occurred in men who have sex with men (MSM). In this group, gonorrhoea infections fell by five per cent last year.<\/p>\n
Cases of early infectious syphilis (EIS) also dropped by 11 per cent within this group, to stand at 31 cases per 100,000 population.<\/p>\n
Lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) and mpox notification both increased but notification rates remain low at 2.2 per 100,000 and 1.0 per 100,000 population respectively. There were 53 confirmed mpox cases in 2025.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s high rates of STI infection mirror European trends. Published in May, the latest Annual Epidemiological Reports from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show considerable increases in reported cases of syphilis and gonorrhoea in 2024.<\/p>\n
Across 28 European countries, Ireland recorded the highest rate of gonorrhoea infection, with 109 cases per 100,000 population. However, surveillance systems varied widely by country.<\/p>\n
Overall, 106,331 confirmed gonorrhoea cases were reported by 28 countries in 2024, marking the highest number of infections reported in the EU\/EEA since the start of European STI surveillance in 2009.<\/p>\n
Ireland had the fifth-highest rate of syphilis infection in 2024, at 17.6 cases per 100,000 people \u2013 below Malta, Spain, Portugal and Hungary. As many as 45,557 syphilis cases were confirmed in 29 European countries.<\/p>\n
A total of 213,443 chlamydia cases were recorded in 27 countries in 2024. Highest rates of infection per capita were found in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with Ireland recording 210.6 cases per 100,000 population that year.<\/p>\n
Among countries, including Ireland, that reported a drop in chlamydia cases in 2024, the ECDC report noted that these reductions may be due to combination of strengthened prevention efforts, shifts in testing patterns and behavioural changes during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinued surveillance, analytical studies and integration of behavioural data are needed to assess whether these trends represent a sustained epidemiological shift and to inform future STI prevention strategies in Europe,\u201d the report concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Latest ECDC report finds Ireland had the highest rate of gonorrhoea infection across 28 European countries in 2024…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11039,200559,103,61,60,22704,15081,209369],"class_list":["post-487072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-chlamydia","tag-gonorrhoea","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sexually-transmitted-infections","tag-syphilis","tag-vd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}