Around 60 % of all gonorrhea cases in Norway were reported in Oslo in 2018. This is also where the increase in cases in the country is greatest.
In 2009, 116 infections were registered in the capital. Last year, the figure was 1,038, which is almost a ten-fold increase in ten years, VG writes.
Senior physician Hans Blystad, from the Institute of Public Health, tells the newspaper that the main reason for the increase is that more men have sex with men, especially in Oslo.
It’s the same trend we’ve seen in most countries in Western Europe and the US, where the number of HIV infected among this group is declining, while cases of gonorrhea and syphilis are rising. Infections of gonorrhea and syphilis have increased to a lesser extent among heterosexuals, says Blystad.
Many who get gonorrhea are also resistant to antibiotics. Because of this, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health considers gonorrhea to be the biggest challenge with STDs in Norway.
There are actually gonorrhea bacteria that are virtually untreatable. These are not a clinical problem in Norway yet, but when they are found in Asia and other countries in Europe, it is probably only a matter of time before we see them here, says Ørjan Olsvik, a professor in medical microbiology at the University of Tromsø.
Doctor Blystad says people need to be better at using condoms in oral sex, anal sex and vaginal sex if the bacterial incidence is to go down.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
