gonorrhea is spreading in Europe. However, only in some Parts, it seems. In the UK, has doubled the number of infections in just a few years to around 50,000 cases. In France, it should have prior to 2001, not a single case of the clap. In 2017, there were already 9,000 Infected, in Italy there are almost 850, in Poland, 138, Germany, included in the statistics of the European centre for disease prevention and control (ECDC).

Peter-Philipp Schmitt

editor in the Department “Germany and the world”.

F. A. Z.

for a simple reason: in this country There is no reporting requirement for the according to the world health organization (WHO) is the third most common sexually transmitted disease. Also the Robert Koch-Institute in Berlin, it is stated that hardly any epidemiological data on gonorrhoea, although it had come in the past few years, in the case of infections “to an alarming global spread of resistance against modern antibiotics”. The data location is not only thin, when it comes to gonococcus (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), colloquially clap. Similarly, Chlamydia trachomatis, syphilis and Trichomonas vaginalis, as well as a variety of other sexually transmitted diseases, short STIs.

for this reason, the Institute for HIV research at the University of Duisburg-has a European prevention network (Stipnet) food. “We are going to investigate in the composite, such as widespread diseases and how the reliability of measures can check, for example through Vaccination,” says project Manager Hendrik Streeck. A first step for the Professor of medical biology and Director of the Institute, a study was launched at the beginning of the year in several European cities. A total of part, have a particular risk of being infected with HIV or another sexually-transmitted disease in about 5500 people.

Streeck can draw on experiences from the so-called Brahms-study, which has been running since may of 2018 and for the almost 1,000 study participants in seven German cities every three months in clinics and medical practices on STIs to investigate. Wanted is learning to 13 viruses, bacteria, and single. “We found that one in four had an infection, of which he knew nothing so far,” says Streeck. Every tenth was found, therefore, gonorrhea, and even, in some cases, a previously undetected Hepatitis C infection could be demonstrated. A further insight: The Infected infected quite often with an STI, and five percent within the next three months.