In 2022, the GGDs will have tested more often for sexually transmitted infections (STDs) than before the corona pandemic. People were found to have contracted chlamydia more often than in 2019, but the increase in the number of gonorrhea cases is particularly striking.
A total of 164,715 tests were performed last year. That was more than in 2019 – the last year before corona – when more than 150,000 tests were taken. Fewer STI tests were conducted in corona times because care was scaled down.
A pilot in which men who have sex with men test the HIV prevention pill PrEP partly explains this increase. As part of that pilot, they are tested for STIs. But the GGDs also saw that women, heterosexual men and other men who have sex with men had themselves tested slightly more often.
Chlamydia, the most common STI, has been diagnosed nearly 25,000 times. People who had a test tested positive for chlamydia more often than in 2019. Chlamydia was found in 21.2 percent of heterosexual men, compared to 18.4 percent in 2019. For women, this is 17.9 percent and 15.3 percent respectively.
But especially the number of cases of gonorrhea increased sharply, according to the RIVM. That STI was diagnosed more than 10,000 times in 2022. That was still about 8,100 in 2019. The STD was mainly found in persons under the age of 25 with a Dutch origin and a high level of education.
