The coronavirus can continue to live in the semen of infected men, even if those men recover. That makes it more likely that the virus is sexually transmitted, say Chinese researchers.
A team at Shangqiu Municipal Hospital tested 38 male patients treated there in January and February at the height of the pandemic in China. About 16% of them had the coronavirus in their sperm. About a quarter of them were in the acute stage of infection and nearly 9% recovered, the team reported. “We found that SARS-CoV-2 may be present in the sperm of patients and that SARS-CoV-2 can still be detected in the sperm of convalescent patients,” said Diangeng Li of China’s People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing.
It is not a surprising finding. Many viruses can live in the male reproductive system. Ebola and Zika virus were both found to spread in sperm, sometimes months after a patient recovered.
–
– .
