For men who survive Ebola, semen may hold virus months later

For men who survive Ebola, semen may hold virus months later


The deadly Ebola outbreak that began in Africa in 2014 is mostly under control, but a journal article from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases documents an unsettling case.

The case study confirms transmission of the Ebola virus to a 44-year-old woman through sexual intercourse. That might not seem surprising, but here’s the kicker: the man who gave it to her had contracted Ebola six months earlier and subsequently tested negative for it.

According to the article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the man came down with Ebola symptoms in September 2014 and was treated at a clinic. He had contracted Ebola from his brother, who died of the disease. Less than a month later, two blood tests spaced several days apart showed no remainders of the virus in his blood. Unlike so many other people, he had beaten Ebola.

Fast-forward six months to March 2015. The disease is mostly eradicated from the man’s country … but then a woman with whom he had sexual intercourse came down with the disease and died. Medical investigators could not find anyone battling Ebola who could have given it to her. But they did learn of her relationship with the man who had survived it.

A test of his semen revealed the virus living there, an astonishing 175 days since his first negative blood test. The journal article states that doctors have known the virus could persist in semen as long as 101 days after symptoms start. But they didn’t know if people could get sick from it. Now, they know it’s possible.

It’s unclear what percentage of Ebola survivors have the disease lurking in some form of their body fluid… or how big the risk is they will pass it to others. Hopefully, both are very small.

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