The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that new data shows sexually transmitted diseases are on rise in most regions, and the highest increases occur in the African and American regions.
The WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus said this during his opening remarks at the media briefing held virtually on global health issues.
According to the National AIDS and STDs Control Program, there are about three million reported annual cases of STIs mainly caused by chlamydia, N. gonorrhoea, and trichomonas vaginalis in Nigeria.
STIs pose a myriad of complications in the short, medium, and long term, with women being particularly vulnerable to their effects.
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Ghebreyesus said, “New syphilis cases among adults aged 15-49 years increased by nearly one million in 2022, reaching eight million. And there were 230,000 syphilis-related deaths.
“The highest increases occurred in the Region for the Americas and the African Region. New data also show an increase in multi-resistant gonorrhoea.
“As of 2023, out of 87 countries where enhanced gonorrhoea antimicrobial resistance surveillance was conducted, nine countries reported elevated levels of resistance to the last line of treatment for gonorrhoea.”
The WHO boss, however, noted that the organisation updated its recommended treatment to reduce the spread of this multi-resistant gonorrhoea strain.
Further data from the WHO showed that 1.1 million pregnant women were estimated to be infected with syphilis in 2022, resulting in over 390,000 adverse birth outcomes.
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