Press Release: Wednesday 15 January 2025
Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Colm Burke highlights high uptake of home STI test kit service
Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Colm Burke, has today highlighted the high uptake of free Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) home testing kits, with 126,090 kits ordered and dispatched in 2024.
The figures were revealed as new data from the Health Service Executive’s (HSE’s) Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), from the final week of 2024, shows that the number of notified STI cases in 2024 was approximately 10% lower than in 2023. This is driven mainly by a reduction in the number of cases of chlamydia and gonorrhoea.
Demand for STI home testing kits has risen steadily since the service was launched in 2022, with 91,000 kits ordered in that year, and 108,000 kits ordered in 2023. The rate of returned kits has also risen, from 62% in 2022 to 69% in 2023 and 72.5% in 2024.
Reflecting this increase, an additional €600,000 has been allocated for the service in 2025. This brings overall funding for home STI testing to €4.82 million in 2025.
Minister Burke said:
“I’m very pleased to have secured additional funding for this very important service, in recognition of the growing demand for discreet and confidential access to testing.
“This service enables quick diagnosis, referral and intervention for those who receive positive test results, providing peace of mind and making it easier for people to be proactive about their sexual health.
“Most STIs, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and syphilis, are often asymptomatic and can lead to significant harm if undiagnosed, but they are treatable. Those who test positive for chlamydia now have the option of an online prescription, reducing the number of referrals to clinics for treatment.
“This is a very effective service which plays a critical role in safeguarding sexual health and in protecting overall population health. In line with the principles of Sláintecare, it illustrates our commitment to prioritising sexual health and wellbeing, and in expanding free services in this area.”
Since its launch in 2022, the National Home STI Testing Service has proven very popular and has added approximately 33% to national testing capacity. It has reached many people who may have been reluctant to attend an STI clinic in person.
In 2024, the percentage of people receiving reactive results was 9.7%, marginally lower than the rate recorded in 2023.
The majority of results, just over 5,500, related to chlamydia, with many of these cases being managed via online prescriptions. Just under 1,800 people experienced a reactive result for gonorrhoea and were referred to a public STI clinic for follow-up in person. Approximately 1,550 patients were referred for follow-up blood tests for other STIs or HIV.
Since September 2024, test recipients have had the option to receive free condoms and lubricants with their free test kits, through the National Condom Distribution Service. Approximately 4,400 people have availed of this option to date.
2024 figures for the National Condom Distribution Service show that just over 1.2 million condoms and just under 800,000 lubricant sachets were ordered in 2024.
Clinical Lead for the HSE Sexual Health Programme Professor Fiona Lyons said:
“The popularity of the service continued in 2024, with around 1 in 10 user results requiring additional care. There were two important new service developments in 2024. Firstly, the option for people to have low complexity chlamydia managed within the service. We are now offering people who have a positive chlamydia result the option to have their assessment done online and where suitable have a prescription sent to a community pharmacy of their choice.
“This option has proven to be very successful with eight in 10 people choosing this option in the last six months of 2024. This helps to reduce pressure on public STI services whilst providing appropriate, timely and convenient healthcare. Secondly, we introduced the option for gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM) to order condoms at the time of placing a test kit order. Almost 4,500 gbMSM placed a condom order between September and December. Condoms remain an important part of protecting sexual health and this development makes them easily available to service users.”
Free sexual health services now include the Free Contraception Scheme, the National Condom Distribution Service and HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), in addition to free home STI testing and a network of 23 public STI clinics.
An independent Review of the ‘National Sexual Health Strategy 2015 – 2020’ was published in March 2023 and found that 49 of 56 Actions under the Strategy have been successfully progressed. The Review is available here.
Work on drafting the second National Sexual Health Strategy is almost complete.
Availability of the national home STI testing service has increased access to testing, removing potential barriers such as embarrassment, cost and time needed to travel to and attend a face-to-face service. The home STI testing service is provided by online provider SH:24 under contract with the HSE. Details of how to access the service are available through www.sexualwellbeing.ie.
HIV, Mpox and STI notification data are published weekly by the HPSC and are available at www.hpsc.ie.
