Restrictive measures due to COVID-19 outbreak resulted in unprecedented modifications in healthcare services and social life.
We reviewed records from two referral centres in Greece to identify newly diagnosed cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis from 1 March 2020 to 30 October 2020 and compared them with the respective numbers of the same period in 2019. The total number of new syphilis and gonorrhoea diagnoses in 2020 was 423 versus 521 in 2019. Syphilis cases in 2020 were significantly lower compared with 2019 (306 vs 340, respectively, p=0.02, 10% reduction). Similarly, there were 113 versus 179 gonorrhoea cases in 2020 and 2019, respectively (p=0.01, 36.9% reduction). The number of heterosexuals was significantly lower in 2020, compared with 2019, while the number of men having sex with men (MSM) was slightly increased.
A reduction in newly diagnosed STDs was reported in many countries during COVID-19 outbreak.