Reasons why syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia cases are surging in Sheffield

A dataset recently published by the Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed that the number of people diagnosed with syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea in Sheffield had increased in the last couple of years, especially from 2021 to 2022.

While there were 3.1 people out of 100,000 with syphilis in Sheffield in 2021, this is now 13.2/100,000 people in 2022. The average for English single-tier and county councils was 19.8 in 2022.

With chlamydia, Sheffield passed the average (396.6) with 441.7 per 100,000 people diagnosed with the disease in 2022. It’s a surge from 326.3/100,000 from the previous year.

Also, there were 146.1 people of 100,000 diagnosed with gonorrhoea which is also up from 2021 (97.2/100,000).

Greg Fell, the director of public health in Sheffield, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the reasons behind the increasing numbers are complicated but Sheffield “is not peculiar” as the numbers are going up everywhere in the UK.

He said a lack of government funding and knock-on effects from the pandemic were partly to blame.

He said: “It’s worth saying Sheffield is not peculiar, it’s happening up and down the country, Sheffield is about average – but it’s happening, there is zero doubt about that.

“There are four reasons, none of which is definitely provable but I suspect all are in the mix.

“Most importantly, long-term funding structural underfunding of sexual and reproductive health combined with cuts in the budget that I pay for. That is in the mix, let’s pretend that is not in the mix. Those are the decisions made in Whitehall, not at town hall.

“I could choose to increase the funding available to local sexual health services but it would be at the cost of less health visitors or less alcohol treatment.

“Everyone says we should trim the fat while no more fat left.

“There is also a hangover from the pandemic. You will remember from the pandemic, everything, almost all NHS services were focused on Covid – rightly and understandably – but we turned down the input we’d put into sexual and reproductive health services.

“It has consequences. It disrupted services, people were still having sex clearly but not able to get tests. There is less STI contact tracing, thus more spread… That ripple effect is still in the mix.”

Mr Fell said last year’s monkeypox outbreak had also contributed to the problem. STI services had put in a “Herculean shift” to stop the spread. Contact tracing and vaccination did get that outbreak under control, but had wider impacts, he added.

The fourth thing in the mix, he said, was a probable shift in the population’s sexual behaviour.

He said while work is being done to get it under control, it will take a while.

“Very very very early signs, I wouldn’t want to call it too much, but the positivity rates have begun to come back down again”, Mr Fell said.

He told the LDRS that he wanted more resources in sexual and reproductive (health services).

Mr Fell said the focus should be testing and contact tracing, as well as education, awareness, communication and access to condoms and that kind of thing.

He added during the course of the pandemic a whole cohort of children had missed out on sexual education.

“It may well be a thing in the mix but it’s hard to nail the impact of it”, he said.