Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are surging in Almeria, new data has revealed.
Figures show there were 1,195 reported STIs in the province during 2025, almost five times the 245 recorded just four years earlier.
Chlamydia is by far the most commonly diagnosed, reaching a record 666 cases, while gonorrhoea accounted for 311.
But perhaps the most striking resurgence concerns syphilis, a centuries-old bacterial infection that can cause serious damage to the brain, heart and other organs if left untreated.
Almeria recorded 180 cases of syphilis in 2025, some five times the 36 reported in 2021, reports Diario de Almeria.
The trend is not unique to the province. Spain’s Ministry of Health says STIs have been increasing nationally since the beginning of the 2000s and reached some of their highest levels in more than a decade in 2024.
Why are STIs increasing?
The Health Ministry says the national increase appears to reflect a combination of changing sexual behaviour and relationships, alongside improved surveillance and easier access to diagnostic testing.
Health authorities have also pointed to possible factors including more sex without condoms, greater numbers of sexual partners and changes in sexual networks.
At the same time, better testing means infections that would once have gone unnoticed are increasingly being diagnosed.
That is particularly significant for chlamydia, because many people carrying the infection have no symptoms at all.
In other words, the enormous increase in reported cases does not necessarily mean transmission itself has increased by the same amount.
Chlamydia cases multiply twelvefold
The transformation is particularly dramatic when looking at chlamydia, of which Almeria recorded just 53 cases in 2021.
That jumped to 298 in 2022, 538 in 2023 and 659 in 2024, before reaching a record 666 cases in 2025.
In just four years, the number of reported infections has therefore increased more than twelvefold.
Chlamydia is transmitted primarily through vaginal, anal or oral sex and can affect both men and women.
When symptoms occur, they can include genital discharge, pain or a burning sensation while urinating and pelvic pain.
But its ability to remain virtually invisible is part of what makes it so easy to spread.
Untreated infections can also have serious consequences, particularly for women, including pelvic inflammatory disease and fertility problems.
Syphilis makes a comeback
Meanwhile, Almeria’s 180 diagnoses of syphilis in 2025 were the highest in the recent series and compare with only 36 four years earlier.
The disease can initially cause a painless sore, which may disappear by itself.
Without treatment, syphilis can progress through different stages and eventually cause severe health complications.
It is, however, curable when properly diagnosed and treated.
Spain recorded 11,930 syphilis cases in 2024, with the Health Ministry calculating an upward trend of 19.4% between 2021 and 2024.
Gonorrhoea also soaring
Gonorrhoea has undergone an equally dramatic rise in Almeria, counting 311 cases in 2025, compared with just 40 in 2021.
The disease can cause genital discharge and pain or burning when urinating, although it too can be present without obvious symptoms.
Health authorities are particularly concerned about gonorrhoea due to growing antibiotic resistance.
Some strains have developed resistance to drugs used to treat the infection, prompting Spain’s new national STI strategy to make surveillance of multidrug-resistant gonorrhoea one of its priorities.
Men account for most gonorrhoea and syphilis cases
Of Almeria’s 311 gonorrhoea cases in 2025, 227 were diagnosed in men and 84 in women.
The divide was even greater for syphilis, with 153 male cases compared with just 27 among women.
Of the province’s 666 chlamydia cases, however, 362 involved women and 304 men.
The Health Ministry has warned that a perception among some younger people that STIs are diseases of the past may itself be contributing to complacency around protection.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
