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Syphilis outbreak partly caused by 'significant restrictions' on access to testing during Covid

The number of cases are exceeding those seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

A NATIONAL OUTBREAK of early infectious syphilis (EIS) has been declared in Ireland.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) confirmed this week that there is a “potentially large undiagnosed reservoir of syphilis infection in Ireland due in part to the impact of COVID-19″.

A spokesperson for the HSE Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme said that the pandemic led to “significant restrictions” in people’s access to testing in sexual health clinics. 

Cases had been rising here before the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a significant decline during the first wave of the pandemic, cases increased throughout last year with a total of 562 reported.

The HPSC has said that cases are now on the rise again. While the data for 2021 is incomplete, 242 cases were reported in the first four months of the year.

6afaf6901bed2c6039844c Health Protection Surveillance Centre Health Protection Surveillance Centre

79% of cases were in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow, followed by 9% in Cork and Kerry. Limerick, Clare and Tipperary North accounted for 4% of the cases.

91% were in males while the proportion of cases in females has nearly doubled from 4.5% in 2018 to 9% in 2021.

The highest rates were in those aged 30 to 34 at 22%, and those aged 25 to 29 at 20%. 15% of cases were among those aged 35 to 39 compared to 9% of cases who were aged 20 to 24.

Syphilis is easily treated but highly infectious, and many people with the condition often don’t develop symptoms. 

The HSE say that if left untreated, it can cause “serious health problems” to the heart, brain, eyes and nervous system that could take years to develop. It can also pass from pregnant women to their child, potentially causing serious harm. 

The outbreak has been partly put down to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health services. 

Almost all sexual health services closed during the first wave of Covid-19 infections. While STI services have now resumed testing, they are still operating at a limited capacity. 

Some online booking systems remain down due to the recent cyberattack on the HSE, but the health service is “working towards restoration of normal service activity”. 

The pandemic has also significantly impacted access to HIV testing and support, threatening to undermine progress on HIV in Ireland.

The Gay Men’s Health Service (GMHS) in Dublin has been closed or operating with reduced services since the onset of restrictions last year, affecting men in the LGBT+ community who use the clinic for HIV screening, treatment and advice, as well as other medical services.

Currently, the service is only taking bookings for PrEP – a medication to prevent contraction of HIV – and its asymptomatic screening services. Appointments can only be made over the phone due to the HSE cyberattack. 

In response to the syphilis outbreak, the MPOWER Programme at HIV Ireland have announced that they are offering free syphilis testing to gay and bisexual men at their pop-up clinic at the HIV Ireland office in Dublin City Centre.

In a post on social media, they said: “Syphilis is on the rise among gay and bi men in Ireland. It’s easy to get but also easy to cure. Some people get symptoms, but a lot don’t at all. The only way to know for sure is to get tested.”

Appointments can be booked on their website.

Elsewhere, a free walk-in STI testing service is available in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin every Friday this month.

You can also order a free STI home test kit from SH:24 as part of a pilot project with the HSE. 

The online testing service has been extended in Dublin, Cork and Kerry, with the Dublin catchment extended to include Kildare and Wicklow.

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    Mute Michael G O'Reilly
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    Sep 29th 2013, 6:47 PM

    Vote NO to both proposals. !

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    Mute Joey JoeJoe Shabadoo
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:43 PM

    To balance this out I will say vote ‘YES’ to both!

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    Mute Leslie Alan Rock
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    Sep 29th 2013, 6:52 PM

    You must never criticise commisar kenny or his comrades. You must never report negative news…

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    Mute Mary Ryan
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:13 PM

    You now can’t even show people having a go at Enda during the All-Ireland…

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    Mute Leslie Alan Rock
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:17 PM

    Not one image of him was shown

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    Mute Soneps
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:08 PM

    Luckily you have the journal Leslie Alan Rock – the majority of your comments are about Enda Kenny – you are obsessed with the man.

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:41 PM

    No Soneps, Leslie can move from topic to topic pretty easily unlike a lot of one trick pony’s around here that only surface on a given subject. It’s posters that can do that, that make online media worthwhile.

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    Mute Max
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:36 PM

    There are certain talk shows that the host will put forward their completely biased opinion and won’t let anybody disagree with them just because they seem to have a certain point of view and just label anybody that disagrees with them as an idiot or moron, hosts should remain neutral at all times and should never be able to give their own opinion because it brainwashes people, I’ve heard serious bullying on the radio because the host would agree with one caller and then they would both bully the other caller by calling them an idiot and a moron

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    Mute Joey JoeJoe Shabadoo
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:44 PM

    George Hook over on Newstalk is indeed fond of doing this.

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    Mute Max
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:59 PM

    And what’s even more funny is that the next topic on the show may be about bullying and how it ought to be stamped out and the host will be dead against bullying for this instance but will bully anybody that disagrees with them, it’s hilarious but the average caller to these shows is not very intelligent, the amount of people embarrassing themselves for our enjoyment on Irish radio is off the hook

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    Mute Soneps
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:07 PM

    Jonathan Healy on Lunchtime at Newstalk.

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    Mute Nigel O Keeffe
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:58 PM

    Sorry for going off topic.
    but all this talk of radio has made me realise that we havent had a Pat Kenny story in over a week!
    How is he..?

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    Mute Max
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:06 PM

    Pat Kenny used to be a great way for me to get some sleep, he’s so bloody boring he’d put an insomniac asleep for a week

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:43 PM

    I’d hate to say it myself, but Kenny is head and shoulders above the rest. As a broadcast journalist he’s superb. He has no equal in Ireland {and it pains me to say that}.

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    Mute Little Jim
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    Sep 29th 2013, 10:54 PM

    Did he move to newstalk after

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:05 PM

    Good article Christine. Between this article and Hugh O’Connell, Michelle Hennessy, Sinéad O’Carroll, Aoife Barry, and Daragh Brophy’s article on the Banking crisis today the Journal seems to dramatically upping its game. Most welcome.

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    Mute mister
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:21 PM

    Can somebody explain why we have the broadcasting moratorium that exists from the day before an election (and I presume a referendum) in Ireland? It seems a bit antiquated.

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    Mute John Mcloughlin
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    Sep 29th 2013, 7:27 PM

    Because we,re regulated into a knot in this country in the things that don’t matter and not in others like banks and developers.

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    Mute o4kxpGx9
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    Sep 29th 2013, 11:12 PM

    Please correct me if I am wrong on this but are all high court judges elected by politicians?and if so if this referendum is passed who is going to elect the next group of Judges? Politicians! That is something I don’t understand and if this is about the supreme court than the Government will always win unless you have the extradorinary amount of money to challange in the European Court or Civil rights courts. To me this is not very well debated. Kenny will not Discuss or will any politician so to me I have to vote no and I don’t believe newspapers they are editors opinions.

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    Mute Noel Otley
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:35 PM

    The IT and Indo both ran Susan Denham’s speech supporting change – we must have a Court of Appeal but I am not telling people how to vote (yeh, right!) – but prevented readers commenting on the story.

    Why the censorship?

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    Mute Niall Sullivan
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    Sep 29th 2013, 8:50 PM

    Does anyone believe that these new toothless BAI codes are actually going to make a difference to VB and the rest? No is the answer. Nothing will change. Politicians will continue to waffle, VB will continue to shout, Mary Daly will continue to give soft interviews, Sean O’ Rourke is now too busy being an entertainer, Dobson will still be more concerned about his make up than anything else, George Hook will continue to make himself centre stage, morning Ireland and Ivan Yates are a little too early in the morn for me.

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