Last year, 28,466 cases of chlamydia were recorded in Norway, a 6.6% increase over the previous year, and the highest reported number ever, according to the Institute of Public Health (FHI).
The figures were revealed in July, in the FHI’s annual report on sexually transmitted infections.
“The increased chlamydia numbers are probably due to a combination of the fact that more people are getting tested and that more people are actually getting infected,” senior adviser Øivind Nilsen at FHI noted at the time.
A total of 386,978 people were tested for chlamydia in 2019, up 6.3% from the previous year.
Nearly 60% of those diagnosed were women, and 66% of all cases were people under 25.
Worst in Oslo
The diagnosis rate has been highest in Oslo during the last three years, and FHI describes the increase in the capital over the previous ten years as “significant.”
While Oslo had 890 chlamydia cases per 100,000 people in the population, Troms og Finnmark had 701.
Trøndelag is in third place, with 602 cases per 100,000 people in the population.
Continued increase in gonorrhea
The number of registered cases of gonorrhea also continues to increase.
Last year a total of 1,703 cases were registered, 44 more than in 2018.
“We are worried that the trend of a high number of gonorrhea cases will continue,” Nilsen said.
A total of 1,327 of last year’s cases involved men, of whom 970 men were infected by other men.
That is a slight decrease from the previous year when 1,017 men were infected by other men.
Gonorrhea cases among women have tripled over the last ten years, and for the first time, more cases have been registered among heterosexual women than heterosexual men.
Fewer cases of HIV and syphilis
Registered HIV cases fell by 10%, from 191 cases in 2018 to 172 cases in 2019.
The group most at risk is men who have sex with men, as well as heterosexual men traveling abroad – especially to Southeast Asia.
The number of cases of syphilis also continues to decrease in Norway.
In 2019, 206 cases of syphilis were registered, a decline of almost 11%.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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