Key Summary
- Gonorrhoea and syphilis have reached their highest levels in Europe in over a decade.
- Men who have sex with men and heterosexual women of reproductive age are among the most affected groups.
- The UK rolled out a gonorrhoea vaccine in 2025.
Sexually transmitted infections such as gonorrhoea and syphilis have reached their highest levels in more than 10 years across Europe, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
In 2024, gonorrhoea rose to 106,331 cases—a 303 per cent increase since 2015—while syphilis more than doubled over the same period to 45,557 cases.
The ECDC links the surge in part to widening gaps in testing and prevention services and calls for urgent action to slow transmission.
Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported bacterial STI, with 213,443 cases in 2024, although this is a 6 per cent decrease from 2015.
Bruno Ciancio, head of the ECDC’s Directly Transmitted and Vaccine‑Preventable Diseases unit, warned that these infections can cause chronic pain and infertility, and in the case of syphilis, may lead to heart or nervous‑system damage.
He highlighted that congenital syphilis cases—where the infection passes from mother to newborn, potentially causing lifelong complications—almost doubled from 2023 to 2024.
Ciancio also stressed that protecting sexual health is simple: “Use condoms with new or multiple partners and get tested if you have symptoms.”
Spain reported the highest number of gonorrhoea and syphilis cases among participating European countries in 2024, with 37,169 and 11,556 cases respectively.
Men who have sex with men remain the group most disproportionately affected, showing the sharpest long‑term increases in gonorrhoea and syphilis.
The ECDC also noted large rises in syphilis among heterosexual women of reproductive age.
The UK is no longer included in this EU‑wide dataset following Brexit but publishes its own annual figures for England through the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Those data show 71,802 gonorrhoea cases, 9,535 syphilis cases, and 168,889 chlamydia diagnoses in England in 2024.
The UK began rolling out a gonorrhoea vaccine in 2025 after the infection reached a record 85,000 cases in 2023.
