SEXUALLY transmitted infections have fallen across Dorset – although the recorded change may be partially due to fewer people being screened because of the pandemic.

A pan-Dorset public health report says that the proportion of 15-25 year olds screened in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole for chlamydia is higher than the England average with diagnosis rates above the England rate for the area at 5,109 per 100,000 population. The above average rate may be explained by a programme of targetted screening.

In the Dorset Council area the screening rate is the same as the national average with the diagnosis rate lower at 3,135 for each 100,000 population.

Both sets are figures are only available until 2020.

Locally the diagnosis rate of gonorrhoea has been increasing since 2016 in line with a national rise but diagnosis rates levelled off in 2020 in the BCP Council area and fell in the Dorset Council area. Diagnosis rates in both council areas are lower than the England average at 79.9 and 19.0 infections per 100,000 population compared to 100.9 for England.

Between 2014 and 2018 the area, in line with national trends, has seen a steady increase in syphilis infection although figures for 2020 show a fall in diagnoses in BCP Council to below the England rate, while Dorset Council continued to show a small increase. Rates in 2020 were 12.25 for England, and 7.81 and 5.79 respectively per 100,000 population for BCP and Dorset Council area.

The BCP area has a higher prevalence of HIV diagnosis than the national average – 2.7 per 100,000, compared to 2.3 nationally, while Dorset’s figure is 0.83 which has increased since 2014 when the rate was 0.65.

New HIV diagnosis rates in the BCP council area have been falling since 2017 and at 7.22 per 100,000 population, aged 15-plus, is above the national average of 5.66.

The Dorset figures have increased very slightly since 2019 to 3.08 per 100,000, although in 2014 were at 4.77.