The number of cases of the sexually transmitted disease (STD), gonorrhea, has increased by 216% in Norway since
2009. Health officials fear a further increase.
In Denmark, the spread of gonorrhea has increased explosively; in 2015, Denmark registered 2,788 cases. In Norway,
the increase is not as pronounced, but is of Public Health concern, reported the newspaper, Dagbladet.
The number of gonorrhea cases dropped sharply in the 90s in connection to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Now, however, the
numbers are on the rise again, partly because fewer people are using condoms.
‘We even fear Danish conditions in a few years. Gonorrhea has a high potential for proliferation’, said Øivind Nilsen,
senior adviser at the Department for Tuberculosis, Blood and Sexual Infection at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health
(Folkehelseinstituttet – NIPH).
Last year, we registered 852 cases of gonorrhea in Norway, so far this year we are up to 911. We’re going to reach the
year’s end at some 1,100 cases.
It’s nowhere near as many as the Danes have, but there has been a sharp increase in Norway. We see a trend where
there are rising cases of gonorrhea and it worries us’, said Nilsen.
STDs increased firstly among gays men, but now the increase is also pronounced among heterosexuals. The disease is
difficult to detect in women and can cause serious infection in both sexes if it is not treated promptly.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
