OVER 450 PEOPLE in Ireland have been diagnosed with HIV so far this year, while a total of 11,078 sexually transmitted infection diagnoses were reported.
According to provisional data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), there were 454 new HIV diagnoses from January to November 2018.
This is an increase of 66 people compared to the same period last year.
There has been a 6% increase in STI diagnoses overall when compared to figures from January to November 2017, which may not seem like a lot, but when broken down there have been 6,739 cases of Chlamydia, 1,989 of Gonorrhoea, 1,383 of Herpes, 19 cases of Lymphogranuloma, 441 of Syphilis, and 53 reported cases of Trichomoniasis.
In the week ending 10 November 2018, there were 337 reported cases of newly diagnosed STIs.
Niall Mulligan, Executive Director of HIV Ireland told TheJournal.ie that the provisional figures for the year so far are the worst he has seen.
“I don’t think we’ve seen that kind of data but it’s disconcerting that we’re almost becoming accepting of this.
“These figures are provisional but they do give a good indication of how things are going to be at the end of the year.