Ebola virus can reside in a survivor's semen up to 12 months, study finds

A new study carried out in Guinea confirms that the Ebola virus may remain in a survivor’s semen up to one year.

The new report validates the one conducted in October 2015 in Sierra Leone.

Countries affected by the disease, and which had attracted attention believe that fragments of the virus could remain permanently in the body of survivors and constitute a danger for their spouses .

The French and Guinean researchers who have followed the 450 healed patients have performed 98 levels of sperm test on 68 men. The Ebola virus has been detected on 8 of them 9 months after they were healed.

The researchers also noted that the persistence of the virus in the seminal fluid decreased with time.

According to them, the virus was present in 28.5% of samples collected between 1 and 3 months. Between the 10th and the 12th month, it was estimated to be 3.5% in the samples before disappearing completely at the end of one year.

Prior to the outbreak, Ebola virus had only been detected in the semen of a few male survivors by cell culture (maximum duration 82 days after disease onset).

According to the Institute of Research for Development based in Guinea in collaboration with other agencies, these results “put the emphasis on the need to recommend, at the international level, the use of condoms by survivors in the months following their healing”.

More than 25, 000 people have been infected and 11, 000 others killed as a result of the spread of the virus by the end of 2013 in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

News Agencies