The highly contagious venereal disease gonorrhea has spread at record speed among young people around the country.
The biggest concern is that more girls have contracted the disease. They have not been affected to a particularly large extent in the past, but have the greatest risk of serious late consequences.
FHI writes that reported cases among women have increased tenfold between 2012 and 2022, from 51 cases to 499.
– The worrying development continues in 2023, with 277 new cases reported in January alone. 116 of these were women. If this trend continues, there are likely to be more than 3,000 gonorrhea cases in 2023, continues FHI on its pages.
In connection with the concern, they have come up with information material, which they hope will spread to the right target group.
NEW GROUP: This graph shows an explosive increase in gonorrhea among young girls. Photo: FHI
– Now is the time to sound a bit of a national alarm, says senior advisor for sexual transmission at FHI, Øivind Nilsen.
With almost 300 registered cases, January 2023 was the month with the highest number of infections in over 40 years.
– Now there is a worrying increase. Gonorrhea has spread throughout the country. Then we have to stand up to make people realize the seriousness and use condoms.
– Must get the young people to use condoms
In addition to information material, the health authorities plan to come up with more comprehensive campaigns and advice/guidelines for the municipalities, according to information from TV 2.
Nilsen has said in a previous interview with TV 2 that the condom message is the most important.
CONDOM: The risk of infection with gonorrhea is very high, and higher than chlamydia, for example. Photo: FHI
– Almost all infections occur when meeting a new or random partner. If they had only used condoms then, a lot would have been done, he said.
A lot of random unprotected sex in combination with high infectiousness of gonorrhea is part of the reason for the high infection rates.
– Gonorrhea is highly contagious. The outbreak potential is significant if the infection now establishes itself among heterosexual young people, where frequent partner changes and low condom use are widespread, says Nilsen.
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Important to know about gonorrhea
- About half of all women who get gonorrhea have no symptoms. Men, on the other hand, usually get symptoms.
- Typical symptoms are changed discharge and spotting in women and burning and discharge in the urethra in men. Women may have pain in the lower abdominal region, and men may have sore testicles.
- Time from infection to symptoms is usually 2-7 days. Untreated gonorrhea can be contagious for several months.
- In approximately 20 per cent of women, untreated gonorrhea can lead to pelvic infection (i.e. inflammation of the ovaries, uterus or fallopian tubes), and thus an increased risk of infertility, chronic abdominal pain and ectopic pregnancy.
