Coronavirus Update: Small Chinese Study Finds Traces Of The Virus In Semen

Coronavirus was detected in the semen of six men hospitalized for COVID-19, Chinese researchers of a small study revealed. The patients were among the 38 men who tested positive for coronavirus infection and admitted to hospitals. Doctors said four of them remained very sick while the two are already on their way to recovery.

Contrasting Findings

The report, which came from the Shangqiu Municipal Hospital in China, published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, showed that the small study did not address the question of whether the men can transmit coronavirus to their partners through sex. No long-term follow-up was conducted, making it hard to know with certainty as to how long the virus can remain in the semen.

Their findings, however, contrasted with another study involving 34 Chinese men infected with the coronavirus. Chinese and U.S. researchers in that study did not find any evidence of the virus in semen examined between a week and nearly three months after being diagnosed with the infection. The study was published in April in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Means Of Transmission

According to Dr. John Hotaling, a professor at the University of Utah and co-author of the US-Chinese collaborative study, the new findings may have involved much sicker patients. Most of them may be suffering from an active disease.

Health experts believe that coronavirus primarily spreads from droplets that are generated when infected people cough. These droplets can infect people nearby if they inhale them or if they facilitated the entry of the virus themselves by accidentally touching their mouths and faces with contaminated hands.

Presence Of The Virus In Fluids

There are studies that reported finding traces of the virus in tears, blood, and even feces. Furthermore, signs of the deadly virus were found in patients who exhibited eye inflammation.

Scientific evidence that suggests other infectious viruses like Ebola and Zika may be transmitted sexually has prompted questions about the latest virus to hit the modern world. Dr. Hotaling said that, if true, it is an important concern. He also noted that further studies are still needed to arrive at a more definite answer.

For Dr. Peter Schlegel, the immediate past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, findings of this new study should not be a cause for alarm. Although in order to be really safe, it may be prudent and wise to “…avoid sexual contact with infected men until they have gone through 14 days without symptoms.”