WHO reports ‘major’ global increase in STIs
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Key takeaways:
- Four curable STIs are responsible for more than 1 million new infections globally per day.
- Progress on eliminating, or at least reducing STI incidence is far too slow to reach WHO goals for 2025 and 2030.
WHO reported a “major” increase in STIs in 2022, specifically highlighting an increase in syphilis and an insufficient decline in new HIV and viral hepatitis infections.
According to the new report, HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs contribute to roughly 2.5 million deaths per year, with new data showing that STI cases continue to surge in many regions of the world, including in the United States, which has reported record numbers of STIs for nearly a decade and is in the midst of a years-long surge in syphilis, including congenital syphilis.
According to the WHO report, four curable STIs — chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and trichomoniasis — account for more than 1 million infections globally every day. Cases of syphilis among people aged 15 to 49 years increased by more than a million worldwide in 2022, reaching eight million infections, according to the WHO report.
“The rising incidence of syphilis raises major concerns,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, said in a press release.
“Fortunately, there has been important progress on a number of other fronts, including in accelerating access to critical health commodities such as diagnostics and treatment,” Tedros said. “We have the tools required to end these epidemics as public health threats by 2030, but we now need to insure that, in the context of an increasingly complex world, countries do all they can to achieve the ambitious targets they set.”
On a positive note, WHO said, the report showed that more than 75% of people living with HIV are receiving ART and 93% of these people have achieved viral suppression. The report noted Egypt’s feat as the first country to achieve “gold tier” status on the path to eliminating hepatitis C, showing the achievement is possible for other low- and middle-income countries. It also mentioned the recent announcement that 19 countries have been validated for elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis or both.
According to WHO, Botswana and Namibia are on the path to eliminating HIV, and Namibia is the first country to apply for evaluation for triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, HBV and syphilis.
However, rates of HIV infection and HIV-related deaths are declining too slowly to reach 2025 targets, and many HIV-related deaths in 2022 were among people who encountered difficulty or delay in receiving antiretroviral therapy, according to the report.
In terms of hepatitis, 13% percent of people with hepatitis B virus had been diagnosed in 2022, and barely 3% received treatment. Between 2015 and 2022, only 36% of people with HCV had been diagnosed, with 20% receiving treatment.
In 2022, there were 1.2 million new HBV cases and nearly 1 million new HCV cases, with annual deaths from hepatitis rising by 200,000 per year from 2019 to 2022.
WHO noted that the number of girls that have been fully vaccinated against HPV by age 15 years increased to 17% in 2022 from 14% in 2020, but the rate is significantly below the 50% target the agency set for 2025.
“While the ambitious targets set by member states for 2025 and 2030 are helping to drive progress, the progress is patchy across many disease areas,” WHO said in the release. “With many indicators remaining off-track to achieve global targets, more political will and commitment are needed to urgently accelerate the efforts.”
References:
- WHO. New report flags major increase in sexually transmitted infections, amidst challenges in HIV and hepatitis. https://www.who.int/news/item/21-05-2024-new-report-flags-major-increase-in-sexually-transmitted-infections---amidst-challenges-in-hiv-and-hepatitis. Published May 21, 2024. Accessed May 22, 2024.
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