Daily Nation ­ Friday
Date: 16.10.2015
Page 8
Article size: 153 cm2
ColumnCM: 34.0
AVE: 82280.0
HEALTH | Report raises fears of fresh outbreak
Ebola 'can survive in
semen for 9 months'
Study
says 20
new cases
in West
Africa were
transmitted
sexually
BY WAGA ODONGO
[email protected]
Men who survive Ebola can
blame for a resurgence of the disease
carry the virus in their in June in Liberia, after the country
sperm and transmit it had been declared Ebola free.
sexually for up to nine months,
The study, published in the New
according to a new study.
England Journal of Medicine, in­
At least 20 new cases of Ebola volved testing the semen of 93 men
in West Africa were found to have who had survived the Ebola virus in
been sexually transmitted and are to Sierra Leone. The semen of all the
DEADLY DISEASE
How it spreads and symptoms
¦ Coming into contact
with body fluids such as
ket or doorknob
blood or semen.
Symptoms: Include fever,
headache, muscle pain,
¦ Skin­to­skin contact
and chills.
e.g. handshakes.
¦ Saliva.
¦ Touching a contami­
nated surface like a blan­
Later, a person may expe­
rience internal bleeding
resulting in vomiting or
coughing blood.
men tested within three months of
Leone, which was the epicentre of
recovery had the Ebola virus and 65
per cent who were tested between
the outbreak.
four and six months after their ill­
are thousands of survivors of
the disease in West Africa and
The UN health agency says sexual
transmission of Ebola from men to
The study warns that there women is "a strong possibility" even
though the disease is mostly spread
by direct contact with bodily fluids
ness were positive.
A quarter of those tested between many of them are sexually active such as blood.
seven and nine months were also males, prompting fears of a new
found to be positive. Some have had outbreak.
WHO has recommended that all
positive sperm test results for the
virus more than nine months after Ebola male survivors either abstain
they recovered.
Sexually active men
from sex or take precautions such
as using condoms for at least three
months after recovering from the
There have been no new cases illness.
of Ebola in over 300 days in Sierra
Ipsos Kenya ­ Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road ­ Lavington ­ Nairobi ­ Kenya