Sex And Masturbation May Hamper Ebola Eradication Efforts

Geneva – The WHO has advised all male survivors of Ebola to be tested
three months after the onset of symptoms and then monthly until they
know they have no risk of passing on the virus through their Fluid.

Bruce
Aylward, Head of the WHO’s Ebola Response, said on Thursday in Geneva
that isolated flare-ups of Ebola may point to a higher risk of
transmission via the Fluid of male survivors than previously thought.

“It’s
not the sex that is dangerous; it’s the Fluid that is dangerous. How
people actually get exposed, in soiled linens or whatever, is not clear.
“Transmission
through Fluid may explain why a few cases continue to occur even though
the outbreak has been almost completely eradicated by an intense
international effort, recently bolstered by the deployment of a trial
vaccine in Guinea and Sierra Leone,’’ he said.
Aylward said the
latest flare-up, in a village on the northern border of Sierra Leone,
followed the death of a 67-year-old woman late last month, 50 days after
the previous confirmed case in the region.

He said transmission chains are considered to have been broken after 42 days with no new infections.

However,
Aylward said that sexual transmission was “obviously not a huge risk,
because if it were we would have seen a lot more in the areas that were
hardest hit at the beginning of this outbreak.”

He said this could undermine the hope of ending the outbreak in West Africa by 2015.

A
clinician said on condition of anonymity, that a forthcoming study in
the New England Journal of Medicine, based on around 200 survivors,
found that around half still had traces of the virus in their Fluid
after six months.
“The old advice of three months is no longer good.

“The number of people with persistent virus in their Fluid is much greater than expected,” clinician said.
The clinician added that the risk might not only be from sex but also from masturbation. (Reuters/NAN)
FHO/YAZ