The World Health Organization (WHO) report highlighted the ongoing challenges posed by global HIV, viral hepatitis epidemics, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), leading to 2.5 million deaths annually. The publication noted an increase in STIs in various regions, surpassing the established goals. In 2022, WHO member states aimed to reduce adult syphilis infections by tenfold by 2030, from 7.1 million to 0.71 million.
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“Yet, new syphilis cases among adults aged 15-49 years increased by over 1 million in 2022 reaching 8 million,” the report said, adding that the highest increases occurred in the region of Americas and the African region. “The rising incidence of syphilis raises major concerns,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.
“Fortunately, there has been important progress on a number of other fronts including in accelerating access to critical health commodities including diagnostics and treatment. Underlining the tools required to end these epidemics as public health threats by 2030 are already present, he said ‘we now need to ensure that, in the context of an increasingly complex world, countries do all they can to achieve the ambitious targets they set themselves.'”
INFECTION INCREASE
Four curable STIs – syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis account for over 1 million infections daily, according to the report. In 2022, 230,000 syphilis-related deaths were reported, it showed. New data also showed an increase in multi-resistant gonorrhea as out of 87 countries where enhanced gonorrhea antimicrobial resistance surveillance was conducted, nine countries reported elevated levels (from 5% to 40%) resistance to ceftriaxone, the last line treatment for gonorrhea as of 2023.
In 2022, the report revealed approximately 1.2 million new cases of hepatitis B and nearly 1 million new cases of hepatitis C. The number of deaths from viral hepatitis increased from 1.1 million in 2019 to 1.3 million in 2022, despite having effective prevention, diagnosis, and treatment tools. Additionally, new HIV infections decreased from 1.5 million in 2020 to 1.3 million in 2022. There were 630,000 HIV-related deaths in 2022, with 13% of these occurring in children under 15 years old.
