The number of reported chlamydia infections has been dropping locally in the last two years.
While the provincial trend shows steep declines in the annual rate of reported chlamydial infections and gonorrhea, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health trends in the last two years show chlamydial infections and gonorrhea cases dropped in 2020. However, the numbers show that gonorrhea cases went back up to pre-pandemic levels after.
Because of decreased services in the pandemic, reporting has been low, said Lise Trotz-Williams epidemiologist at WDG Public Health’s Board of Health meeting last week.
There were 887 chlamydia cases in the WDG Public Health region in 2019, 653 cases in 2020 and 556 cases in 2021. These numbers are slightly lower than rates reported across the province.
“It's not particularly surprising to see that decreasing trend. How much of that decreasing trend for chlamydia is due to reduced testing? How much was due to reduced contact between people and reduced transmission because of all the lockdowns and restrictions is pretty unclear because right now we don't have the data collection methods or coverage to be able to draw any firm conclusions on that,” said Trotz-Williams.
The WDG Public Health Trends in Reported Sexually Transmitted Infections in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph 2022 report says there has been no marked decrease in reported cases of infectious syphilis over the past two years in the region or in the province and “Several regions in North America have seen reduced access to, and/or use of, sexual health services during the course of the pandemic.”
“This is though to explain, at least in part, the lower rates of reported cases for some STIs in 2020 and 2021."
