HIV rates are dropping but gay and bi men in England are suffering big jumps in chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. The latest figures from Public Health England (PHE), show chlamydia is up 83% between 2015 and 2019.
There were 23,187 new diagnoses of the STI last year alone. Meanwhile, in the same period, gonorrhoea is up 51% to 33,853 new cases and syphilis has risen by 40% to 5,875 diagnoses.
Genital herpes cases are also up, but by a smaller amount. Part of that may be because more gay and bi men are taking STI tests.
But the health officials say the ‘rise in diagnoses of these STIs exceed [the rise in] testing’. Moreover they add ‘men who have sex with men’ (MSM) have changed their sexual behavior, leading to the spikes.