Students are warned as gonorrhoea rife in Wales

THOUSANDS of people last year were diagnosed with the ancient venereal disease gonorrhoea - three times more than a decade earlier in 2015, data shows as the UK Health Security Agency has warned students not to have unprotected sex during Freshers Week.

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Last year there were 3,204 cases of gonorrhoea in Wales, almost triple the number from 2015 (973). The infection rate - used to measure the risk of catching a disease - stood at 101.3 infections per 100,000 people in 2024. That's the equivalent of one in 987 people in Wales catching this STI, which is more than triple the rate from a decade ago (31.7 infections per 100,000 people).

However, that is much lower than in 2023 (168.6 infections per 100,000 people), when the number of gonorrhoea cases peaked at 5,336 in Wales.