People are being urged to take precautions when having sex as figures show Nottingham has higher rates of gonorrhoea and chlamydia than the national average. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has just released data showing that a record number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were recorded in the East Midlands last year.
Across the region, diagnoses of gonorrhoea were up 90% compared to 2021, with 4,627 cases being recorded. That figure is also up 14.4% on pre-pandemic figures. Smaller increases were recorded for diagnoses of syphilis, which went up 30% compared to 2021, while the highest risk group for STIs is people between the ages of 20 and 24.
In Nottingham itself, the public health team says rates of some infections were higher than the national average. There were 891 gonorrhoea cases last year, a rate of 279 per 100,000 people - higher than the national average of 146 per 100,000.
