the covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated that problem.
“our nurses, our frontline workers who find and test and offer treatment for most patients with stis, including syphilis, are part of notification nurses in the province as well as nurses at the sti clinics,” singh said.
“what’s happened during the pandemic is that many of those nurses have been taken away to work on covid responsibilities, which is understandable, during the height of the pandemic.”
the pandemic’s public health measures have also restricted movement through clinics while the activity of an outreach team offering testing and treatment in the community has also been limited.
it’s “very likely” there are cases that have gone undiagnosed because of the pandemic.
“we really need to start opening up our services to allow for people to start to come in now get tested and treated,” she said.
in alberta, singh said about a quarter of the cases are among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men.
“so what that means, of course, is that the remainder are heterosexual persons,” singh said.
“fifteen per cent of the cases are among pregnant women. and about a third of the cases report sex with anonymous partners and 50 per cent report injection drug use.”