months after his recovery, the World Health Organization
said Wednesday, urging survivors to practice safe sex "until
further notice". The man had been declared free of the
deadly virus in Liberia last September, WHO spokesman
Tarik Jasarevic told AFP.
"He has provided a semen sample which has tested…
positive for Ebola, 175 days after his negative blood test," he
said in an email. The UN health agency had previously said
the virus had been detected in semen around three months
after a patient had been declared Ebola free.
The new finding has led WHO to recommend that survivors
abstain from having sex or that they practice safe sex using
a condom beyond the three-month period previously
prescribed.
"Ebola survivors should consider correct and consistent use
of condoms for all sexual acts beyond three months until
more information is available," it says on its website.
Jasarevic said more research was needed before WHO
could provide more detailed advice. "We need to
understand better if this particular case is an anomaly or if
there really are groups of people who might (carry) parts of
the Ebola virus longer," he said.
Until more is known, Ebola survivors should abstain from
sex or practice safe sex "until further notice," Bruce
Aylward, who heads WHO's Ebola response, told reporters
last week. He said a number of studies were already under
way, as well as discussions about whether Ebola survivors
should be systematically screened after three months to
determine their status.
"We should have answers to allow us to give more definitive
advice to survivors very, very quickly," he said. The deadliest
outbreak of Ebola in history began in late 2013 and has
killed more than 10,600 people, mainly in Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea.
(AFP)
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