Changes in testing and incidence of <i>Chlamydia trachomatis</i> and <i>Neisseria gonorrhoeae</i> – the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the three Scandinavian countries
Lovisa Ivarsson, Magdalena de Arriba Sánchez de la Campa, Karin Elfving, Yin Hong, Karolina Gullsby, Lisa Stark, Berit Andersen, Steen Hoffmann, Åsa Gylfe, Magnus Unemo, Björn Herrmann
Abstract
BACKGROUND: infections in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, countries with very different governmental strategies for handling this pandemic. METHODS: requests to Swedish regions and to health authorities in Denmark and Norway. The data were collected for the years 2018-2020 and the data from Sweden were more detailed. RESULTS: = 33,339). Nucleic acid amplifications tests for chlamydia decreased in Sweden (10%) and Norway (18%) in 2020 compared to 2019, while in Denmark a 21% decrease was noted in April 2020 but thereafter increased to a higher level than 2019. The number of reported gonorrhoea cases decreased in Sweden (17%) and in Norway (39%) in 2020 compared to 2019, while a 21% increase was noted in Denmark. CONCLUSIONS: Pandemic restrictions had an impact on the number of reported chlamydia infections in all three countries, but only temporarily and did not seem to be correlated to the restriction levels. The number of reported gonorrhoea infections in Sweden and Norway significantly decreased but not in Denmark. Pandemic restrictions appear to have had a limited effect on the spread of chlamydia and gonorrhoea.