Chlamydia decreases - or are it the tests?

During the first four months of the year, the number of confirmed chlamydia cases in Sweden was at approximately the same level as usual or just above the 2019 level. In May and June, on the other hand, a downward trend is seen - fewer have been found to be infected with chlamydia. There are 593 fewer cases in total in Sweden during the two-month period, a decrease of 11 percent compared with the same period last year.

The Swedish Public Health Agency calls for restricting social contacts during the pandemic, including temporary sexual contacts. Inga Velicko, an epidemiologist at the Swedish Public Health Agency, says that more restrictive sexual behavior may have affected the statistics, but it is most likely not the main cause of the reduced chlamydia cases.

- The most probable explanation is that fewer people have been tested, not that there is a trend break in the disease itself, says Velicko.

The risk is that more people are now withdrawing from seeking care for sexually transmitted diseases, which follows other patterns in care. Visits to the emergency rooms and psychiatric emergency rooms have decreased during the pandemic, according to the National Board of Health and Welfare's figures in June. One explanation that was raised then is that you do not want to burden healthcare. If chlamydia is suspected, however, you can order a home test and then get a referral to a reception if it turns out that you are infected.

- It may be that not everyone knows that you can order a home test online, among young people I think many know it but there may be fewer among the elderly, says Inga Velicko.

The Swedish Public Health Agency does not keep national statistics on the number of tests performed, but according to P3 News' survey earlier this summer, several regions testify to a reduction in chlamydia tests in the spring, for example in Umeå where visits to the Skin and STD clinic were halved in May compared to the same month last year.

Therese Zetterqvist Eriksson, coordinating midwife at UMO, an online youth clinic, urges everyone who has had a temporary sexual to test themselves, even if they do not have any clear symptoms. She believes that the decrease in statistics may have to do with the fact that many youth clinics and STI clinics have closed their drop-in clinics during the pandemic.