A total of 103 have been diagnosed with HIV during 2022, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Monday.

In a reply to a parliamentary question by PN MP Graziella Attard Previ, the minister said that 93 were men while the other 10 were women.

In reply to a question by the same MP, the minister presented a table of figures related to other sexual transmitted infections for the same year.

In 2022, there were a total of 300 cases of Chlamydia, 234 cases of Gonorrhoea, 132 cases of Syphilis, 50 cases of Hepatitis B, 53 cases of Hepatitis C, 33 cases of Monkeypox and 137 cases of scabies.

Asked how his ministry is preparing for the numerous of summer parties happening during the summer, Fearne said that the Directorate for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention collaborates with many community organizations.

Moreover, he said that there is also an active collaboration with a popular online dating application. He explained that members who are geographically located in Malta will receive pop-up messages about sexual health as soon as they enter the app.

The frequency of the messages will be increasing during the Europride period. Several meetings were also held with the organizers of Europride (ARC) to plan awareness activities for Europride, during which informative material such as posters, flyers and condoms will be distributed.