Newly released surveillance data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has revealed an alarming public health crisis across the continent: rates of two major bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), gonorrhoea and syphilis, have reached their highest levels in more than a decade in 2024. The official figures paint a stark picture of accelerating transmission, with confirmed gonorrhoea cases climbing to 106,331 — a staggering 303% jump from 2015 levels. Over the same nine-year period, syphilis diagnoses more than doubled to hit 45,557 in 2024.
ECDC officials have identified growing gaps in routine STI testing and prevention services as a key contributing factor to this explosive surge, and are calling for immediate coordinated action from public health bodies across the region to reverse the trend. Bruno Ciancio, head of ECDC’s Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases unit, emphasized the serious long-term health risks associated with undiagnosed STIs. “These infections can cause severe complications, such as chronic pain and infertility, and in the case of syphilis, permanent damage to the heart or nervous system,” Ciancio explained. He added that even more concerning, cases of congenital syphilis — which occurs when an infected mother passes the infection to her newborn during childbirth, often leading to lifelong health complications — have nearly doubled between 2023 and 2024.
Despite the rising caseload, Ciancio noted that basic protective measures remain effective at reducing transmission risk: “Protecting your sexual health remains straightforward. Use condoms with new or multiple partners, and get tested if you have symptoms.”
Among the 31 European countries participating in the ECDC surveillance program, Spain reported the highest absolute number of confirmed cases for both infections in 2024, recording 37,169 gonorrhoea cases and 11,556 syphilis cases. The data also highlights stark disparities in infection rates across population groups: men who have sex with men remain the most disproportionately affected demographic, accounting for the sharpest long-term increases in both gonorrhoea and syphilis transmission. Public health experts also flagged a notable surge in syphilis cases among heterosexual women of reproductive age, a trend that directly ties to the rise in congenital syphilis diagnoses.
While gonorrhoea and syphilis continue to spread at unprecedented rates, the data offers one small point of relief: chlamydia, the most commonly reported bacterial STI across Europe, has seen a 6% drop in confirmed cases since 2015, falling to 213,443 total diagnoses in 2024.
The United Kingdom withdrew from the ECDC surveillance program following Brexit, but the UK government publishes independent annual data for England. Figures released by the UK Health Security Agency in December 2024 show the same upward STI trend playing out across the country: England recorded 71,802 gonorrhoea cases and 9,535 syphilis cases in 2024, alongside 168,889 chlamydia diagnoses. In response to a record 85,000 gonorrhoea cases reported in 2023, the UK rolled out a national gonorrhoea vaccination program in 2025 to curb transmission.
Public health officials stress that many STIs can progress without obvious symptoms, making routine testing critical for early intervention. For gonorrhoea, common symptomatic presentations include pelvic or urinary pain, abnormal genital discharge, and genital inflammation, though a large share of infections are asymptomatic. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) notes that infection can be prevented through consistent, correct condom use and vaccination for eligible groups. Syphilis symptoms, which often go unnoticed in early stages, include painless sores on the genitals or mouth, a non-itchy rash on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet, patchy hair loss, and flu-like systemic symptoms; symptoms often fade temporarily even as the infection remains active in the body. Like gonorrhoea, syphilis is preventable through condom use and fully treatable with common antibiotic regimens when caught early. Without prompt treatment, however, both infections can cause irreversible chronic health damage.