Fall in number of people diagnosed with HIV or STIs

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The number of people diagnosed with HIV or a sexually transmitted infection decreased by more than 25% last year.

In 2019, 15,097 people were diagnosed with HIV or one of six sexually transmitted infections.

According to provisional data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, this figure dropped to 11,240 in 2020.

The HSE has said that there has been reduced social interaction during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It says this may have led to a drop in sexual activity and a reduction in the number of people requiring STI testing.

Professor Fiona Lyons – who works in the Guide Clinic in St James's Hospital in Dublin, which treats people with HIV, STIs and other infectious diseases – agrees that reduced social interaction has been a factor.

“The call on all of us to behave in a different way has probably had a reduction in socialisation and a reduction on [the] likelihood of interaction between people,” she said.

“I’d say as time has gone on that’s become more challenging for individuals and certainly working in our clinic, we would have had more calls for people needing help in the context of symptomatic STIs as time went on over the last nine months.” 

The HSE has also noted how the pandemic has had an impact on STI services, which were closed between last March and May.

Many public STI services have started to move to emergency appointments only.