Ebola still infectious after five months
Mike Stobbe
May 2, 2015, 1:26 pm
Health officials now think Ebola survivors can spread the disease through unprotected sex nearly twice as long as previously believed.
Scientists had believed the Ebola virus could remain in semen for about three months, but a recent case in west Africa suggests infection through sex can happen more than five months later.
Based on the case, officials are now telling male survivors to avoid unprotected sex indefinitely. They had previously advised using condoms for at least three months.
A report released on Friday detailed the case of a 44-year-old Liberian woman whose infection likely came from a 46-year-old man who had Ebola symptoms last September.
She fell ill in March, a week after sex with him, and died.
Another woman he had sex with around the same time tested negative.
The Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with an Ebola patient's blood or other bodily fluids like urine, saliva, semen and sweat.
Once patients recover, health officials say they aren't contagious except there's a chance it could still be in semen.
Investigations of other recent Ebola cases in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have pointed to sexual transmission from survivors, but those have not been confirmed, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
There have been fewer than 10 such cases, CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said, adding that it'd been difficult to pinpoint that sex was the only way they may have been infected.
In Guinea, Dr Sakoba Keita, the national co-ordinator for Ebola response, said a woman in the southeastern town of Macenta contracted Ebola after having unprotected sex with her husband.
For the past month, officials have recommended all survivors use condoms until more is known.
