This archive report was first published on 8 May 2020.
Published on May 8, 2020, a study in the JAMA Network Open journal has sparked concerns about the potential for sexual transmission of the Covid-19 virus.
Researchers in China found that six out of 38 patients, including two who had recovered from the disease, had the novel virus in their semen.
According to the study, about 16 percent of those tested had evidence of the coronavirus in their semen, with nearly 9 percent of them in the recovering stage of infection.
‘We found that SARS-CoV-2 can be present in the semen of patients with COVID-19, and SARS-CoV-2 may still be detected in the semen of recovering patients,’ said Diangeng Li of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing.
Experts are now advising people who have had coronavirus to abstain from sex or use condoms until further trials confirm whether the disease can be passed on through sex.
