[Gonorrhea and syphilis from Russia to Norway]

In the 1990s, Russia has experienced a rapidly increasing incidence of syphilis and gonorrhoea. There are concerns of a spread of the epidemics to neighbouring Norway. From 1993 to 1998, 1,335 cases of gonorrhoea and 62 cases of syphilis were reported to the Norwegian notification system for infectious diseases. We studied cases with a Russian patient or source partner and cases acquired in Russia. 28 (2.1%) of gonorrhoea cases and 12 (19%) of syphilis cases had links to Russia. There was no time trend over the period. Ten gonorrhoea and three syphilis cases were from Finnmark, a sparsely populated county neighbouring Russia. Most patients were males over 30 years of age. So far, the gonorrhoea and syphilis epidemics in Russia have had minor impact in Norway. Thorough surveillance is still needed.