Global STD Diagnostics Market Size

STD Diagnostics Market Analysis

The Global STD Diagnostics Market size is estimated at USD 16.98 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach USD 23.91 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 7.08% during the forecast period (2024-2029).

The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to have a significant impact on sexually transmitted disease diagnostics. According to the Quest Diagnostics 2020 Health Trends, published by researchers from Penn State University in 2021, screening rates for diseases like gonorrhea and chlamydia went down during the COVID-19 pandemic and the weekly positivity rates increased. The researchers found out that testing and screening for sexually transmitted infections had decreased by 63% for men and 59% for women during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers also found out that STI testing decreased between late February 2020 to early April 2020 by as much as 40%. Thus, the decrease in testing, due to lockdowns and lack of access to testing facilities might have an impact on the STD diagnostics market.

The growing prevalence of STDs globally, increase in patient awareness through education campaigns, and growing government initiatives are anticipated to drive market growth. The report published by the World Health Organization in November 2021, reported that more than 1.0 million sexually transmitted infections are acquired globally and most of them are asymptomatic. It also reported that every year there are an estimated 374.0 million new infections with 1 out of 4 sexually transmitted infections: gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and syphilis. Therefore, such an increasing prevalence and incidence rate of sexually transmitted diseases across the globe is expected to increase the demand for STD diagnostics, thereby propelling the market growth over the forecast period.

Furthermore, HIV continues to be a major public health issue, globally. The purpose of screening is to identify people in an apparently healthy population who are at higher risk of a health problem or a condition so that an early treatment or intervention can be provided and thereby reduce the incidence and mortality rate within the population. For instance, in March 2022, National Chlamydia Screening Program (NCSP) was organized in the United Kingdom. The main aim of the program is to reduce the risk of untreated chlamydia infection. This program also focused on reducing the time to test results and treatment and re-testing after treatment. The program is also changing from prevention and control to focusing on reducing the harms from untreated chlamydia infection by primarily screening women and girls. Additionally, in June 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended and issued guidelines for screening of sexually transmitted diseases in order to create awareness towards screening programs for STDs and increasing burden of STDs across the globe. It has issued separate STD screening guidelines for every group of the population such as women, pregnant women, men who have sex with women, men who have sex with men, transgender and gender diverse persons, and persons with HIV. Thus, the increase in the number of screening programs across the globe is expected to increase the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases, which in turn is anticipated to increase the demand for STD diagnostic products. Hence, considerable market growth is expected over the forecast period.

Additionally, advancements in STD diagnostics and research and development in developing new technologies are projected to fuel the market growth. Also, the market is witnessing a major shift from conventional technologies to molecular diagnostics for the diagnosis of STD's is the major breakthrough for the growth of the market.

Hence, all the aforementioned factors are expected to drive the growth of the market studied.