Sexually transmitted infections on the rise in the pandemic

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It is not only a health crisis, but a social one.

The coronavirus has come to make us sick, to affect us at work and economically, and to change our way of life.

But the Covid has also got into our bedrooms, or so we thought until now.

Several studies during these months have pointed to

.

Fear of contagion has also been mentioned as one of the causes for keeping less rel

Sexual actions outside the home (it seemed the revenge, finally, of the married against the single). In fact, guides and recommendations from different countries have proliferated.

The United Kingdom prohibited having sex between people who do not live in the same house.

Harvard University published a study in July suggesting that couples should wear a mask every time they have sex and classified sexual activities as

.

Along these lines, the Government of Canada published a guide, among others.

Also the Catalan Public Health Agency, under the name

Practically all the guides agreed that there is no evidence that the disease is transmitted through vaginal or anal sex, but that in sex we are exposed to breathing or saliva, which do transmit the coronavirus, hence the recommendations .

Well, despite the warnings and, let's not forget, a strict confinement of several months, sexual relations have not diminished, or at least, risky practices.

According to a study,

, including gonorrhea, secondary syphilis, and genital mycoplasma.

So be careful, what is said to be careful has not been taken.

The investigation

, which was unveiled at the 29th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV, for its acronym in English),

Virtual EADV

, was carried out in two main STI centers in Milan (Italy) and compares the number of confirmed diagnoses of the most common STIs in patients with symptoms during the

to control the epidemic) with the same period in 2019.The results reveal that, despite the fact that the total number of attendances was reduced by more than a third (37%, 233 in 2019 compared to 147 in 2020), the number from serious bacterial infections,

, increased during the observation period, including secondary syphilis and gonorrhea.

However, the cases decreased in non-serious cases, such as genital warts and molluscum contagiosum.

The study concludes that, despite confinement and social distance recommendations,

and serious STIs have increased. "It was assumed that confinement would reduce the opportunity for sexual encounters and STIs. However, I was surprised by the number of new cases of serious infections diagnosed in this short period of time. The infection may have increased due to that the concentration of Covid morbidity and mortality in older people made

"explains Dr. Marco Cusini, from the IRCCS Foundation of the Milan Polyclinic, who adds that" although it is not realistic to prevent people from having sex, even in this unusual pandemic, close contact during sexual relations inevitably implies a increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2.

The findings show the importance of continuous detection of sexually transmitted infections and the real benefit of having these types of services open and available during these unprecedented times. "Since 2010, syphilis has been on the rise across Europe. Also gonorrhea, which it has also increased in our country.

.

The development of antimicrobial resistant gonorrhea is particularly worrisome in the case of the treatment of gonorrhea, since although it is still very susceptible to ceftriaxone, the main antibiotic used to treat this disease, the appearance of antimicrobial resistant gonorrhea (antimicrobial resistance is the ability to that bacteria, viruses and some parasites have to prevent antibiotics and other medications from working against them) makes it increasingly difficult to treat, and sometimes impossible.

Precisely on this question (

) focused on one of the presentations of this EADV Virtual congress.

gonorrhea

is caused by the bacteria

.

Often - not always - it has no symptoms in women and is primarily symptomatic in men.

Those common symptoms include urethral discharge and painful urination (dysuria), while in women there may be odorless vaginal discharge, dysuria, and pain during intercourse.

Symptoms usually appear 1 to 10 days after infection.

(240 per day), of which almost half (47%) occur in homosexual relationships between men.

The United Kingdom reported 55% of all cases (75 per 100,000), followed by Ireland (47), Denmark (33), Iceland (29), Norway (27) and Sweden (25) (4), according to data of the

European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

The first symptoms of

syphilis

They usually develop around two to three weeks after infection, although they can start later.

The main symptom is a small, painless sore or ulcer, typically on the penis, vagina, or around the anus, although it can sometimes appear in the mouth or on the lips, fingers, or buttocks.

Secondary syphilis is a progression of the disease and symptoms, however it is curable with treatment.

The highest rate was observed in Malta (17.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), followed by Luxembourg (17.1), the United Kingdom (12.6) and Spain (10.3).

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