Antinori (Spallanzani): “Sexual diseases are growing in Italy, prevention at school”

In Sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) are rearing their head in Italy. “We too are experiencing, as the ECDC has already attested in Europe, a sharply rising trend in the incidence of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. In 2021 the total number of reports is increasing by just under 20% compared to previous year. And in any case between 2008 and 2021 chlamydia increased 4 times, gonorrhea 3 times and syphilis, although rarer, experienced 2 peaks. Then there are the 2 years of Covid where an underestimate is very likely Inst. The increase occurred in the young adult population of 20-30 year olds and 15-24 year olds also had an increase in Ist, for example for chlamydia it was 3 times. Providing prevention and information on the consequences of STIs right from middle school would help, then today we have vaccines and post-exposure prophylaxis that many don't know about.” Andrea Antinori, director of the Uoc Viral Immunodeficiencies of the INMI Spallanzani in Rome.

Why is there this constantly increasing trend? “The sexual behavior of young people has changed and the age of first experience has dropped – replies Antinori – Furthermore, compared to the years when there was fear of HIV, today we are witnessing a lowering of attention on the protection of sexual relations and this is influencing STIs. We must see the data on sexually transmitted infections as a 'marker' of what is new and what emerges in young people, only in this way can we also adapt the prevention and health protection strategies”.

According to data from the Higher Institute of Health (ISS). “In Italy, from 1991 to 2021, the STI Sentinel Surveillance System reported a total of 151,384 new STI cases. The number of STI cases remained stable until 2004, with an average of 3,994 STI cases reported per year; from 2005 to 2016, reports (the average of 5,486 cases per year) increased by 37.4% compared to the period 1991-2004. In 2021, reports (5,761 STI cases) increased by 17.6% compared to 2020 (4,748 STI cases). Over the entire period, 71.8% of STI cases were diagnosed in men and 28.2% in women“.

A problem with STIs “is that they are often asymptomatic at least at the onset – recalls the expert – and this facilitates their transmission in unprotected relationships. Only in some cases do we have very clear symptoms which can be secretions at the genital level, pain in level of the pelvis or bleeding after sexual intercourse. To intercept asymptomatic people we should undertake a screening operation of the population that has more risky sexual behaviours, while “syphilis, which is curable, if not controlled leads to cardiovascular complications. Therefore – he concludes – they are not just a disease that gives local symptoms, but real pathologies that should not be underestimated”.