10.5826/dpc.1204a177
text/xml
2160-9381
2194
en
Maria Pissa
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Dermatology Practical & Conceptual
sexually transmitted diseases
Sexually transmitted infections during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Swedish healthcare region without lockdown: a focus on gonorrhoea and syphilis
Text.Serial.Journal
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc
Research Letter
2022-10-31
2021-11-22
2022-10-31
2022-12-01
e2022177
Dermatol Pract Concept
Maria Pissa
2022/10/31
10.5826/dpc.1204a177
e2022177
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Ryhov County Hospital, Jonkoping, Sweden  
2160-9381
sexually transmitted diseases
en
e2022177
Bížová B, Rob F, Hercogová JT. Increase of early syphilis cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. Sex Transm Infect Published Online First: 26 May 2021. DOI:10.1136/SEXTRANS-2021-055098.
Sexually transmitted infections during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Swedish healthcare region without lockdown: a focus on gonorrhoea and syphilis
https://dpcj.org/index.php/dpc/article/download/2194/1794
     Sexually Transmitted Infections During the
    COVID-19 Pandemic in a Swedish Healthcare
  Region Without Lockdown: A Focus On Gonorrhea
                    and Syphilis
                                          Maria Pissa1, Sandra Jerkovic Gulin1


1 Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Ryhov County Hospital, Jonkoping, Sweden



Key words: syphilis, Covid-19, SARS-Cov-2, gonorrhea
Citation: Pissa M, Gulin Jerkovic S. Sexually transmitted infections during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Swedish healthcare region without
lockdown: a focus on gonorrhea and syphilis. Dermatol Pract Concept. 2022;12(4):e2022177. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5826/dpc.1204a177
Accepted: January 11, 2022; Published: October 2022
Copyright: ©2022 Pissa et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial License (BY-NC-4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: None.
Authorship: All authors have contributed significantly to this publication.
Corresponding author: Sandra Jerkovic Gulin, MD, PhD, MSc, Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Ryhov County Hospital,
Sjukhusgatan, 55305 Jonkoping, Sweden, Jonkoping, Sweden, E-mail: sandrajerkovicgulin@rjl.se




Introduction                                                             Case presentation
In late December 2019, the first case of infection with SARS-            We aimed to compare the incidence of gonorrhea and
CoV-2 was reported [1]. In March 2020, the pandemic was                  syphilis in Region Jonkoping County healthcare region
declared and led to the collapse of the health care function-            in Sweden during the 18-month COVID-19 period with
ing [2]. The normal access to specialist care was not always             the non-pandemic period. This was a retrospective, obser-
guaranteed in many countries around the world. In March                  vational cohort study done in the three hospitals ­(Ryhov
2020 the pandemic reached Sweden and the Public Health                   County Hospital, Highland Hospital of Nassjo, and
Agency of Sweden issued recommendations to people aged                   ­Varnamo Hospital) in Region Jonkoping County (RJC),
from 70 years or older and risk groups including physical                which is part of the southeast healthcare region in S­ weden
distancing. The incidence of syphilis and gonorrhea in the               providing a healthcare for approximately 360,000 inhab-
COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden has not been studied yet in                  itants. The study was a quality review study approved
contrast to several other countries. Several studies reported            by the operations manager and Head of Department of
a decrease in early syphilis and gonorrhea cases and one                 Dermatology at Ryhov County Hospital in Jonkoping
                                                                         ­
from the Czech Republic showed an initial decrease of early              County Region according to Section 31 of the Health and
­syphilis followed by a significant increase during the pan-             Medical Services Act, which was published in Lakartid-
demic (March 2020 – February 2021)[3-6].                                 ningen (2015; 112: C9CL).




Research Letter | Dermatol Pract Concept. 2022;12(4):e2022177                                                                         1
                                       GONORRHEA                                                                 SYPHILIS

                                                    PANDEMIC                                                                   PANDEMIC
                      9                                                                    6
                      8
    NUMBER OF CASES




                                                                         NUMBER OF CASES
                      7                                                                    5
                      6                                                                    4
                      5
                                                                                           3
                      4
                      3                                                                    2
                      2
                                                                                           1
                      1
                      0                                                                    0
                          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18                         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
                                       MONTHLY AVERAGE                                                         MONTHLY AVERAGE


Figure 1. Number of cases of gonorrhea (by culture or nucleic acid testing) and early syphilis (by serology or nucleic acid testing) during
pandemic (April 1, 2020 – September 31, 2021) and non-pandemic period (October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2020).



        We analyzed monthly cases of gonorrhea and syphilis at           increase in newly diagnosed syphilis cases during pandemic
our three hospitals. We have observed a significant i­ncrease            might be explained not only by light COVID-19 restrictions
in syphilis cases during the pandemic (April 1, 2020 –                   and poor compliance with ­recommendations for social dis-
September 31, 2021) compared to non-pandemic period
­                                                                        tancing but also rising STDs trend.
(October 1, 2018 – March 31, 2020). The difference in the
number of gonorrhea cases during pandemic versus non-­
                                                                         References
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