A small study conducted in China revealed the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in the semen of several infected or recently recovered men. Despite everything, the sexual transmission of the virus still seems very unlikely.
We knew that SARS-CoV-2 could reach the lungs, but also the kidneys, heart, liver and even the gastrointestinal tract. We now know that it can be found in seminal fluid. Evidenced by the results of a study conducted in China, published this Thursday (May 7) in the journal JAMA Network Open . A surprising discovery, but (for the moment) not very worrying.
This research, led by Dr. Shixi Zhang, of Shangqiu Municipal Hospital (Henan), involved 38 men from Shangqiu, China. All had tested positive for Covid-19 and all had symptoms of the disease or had recently recovered. Each participant handed over a semen sample, which doctors then analyzed to assess the presence of SARS-CoV-2.
At the end of this work, the researchers detected the presence of the virus in the semen of six participants, i.e. 16% of the sample . Among them, four patients currently had symptoms of COVID-19, and two patients had recently recovered.
However, it is important to note that while the researchers did detect genetic material from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in semen, the study does not prove that these particles viruses are still "viable" or capable of transmitting infection.
“This is an interesting finding, but it needs to be confirmed that there is an infectious virus – not just viral product in the semen , explains to the New-York Times Dr. Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology, immunology and pediatrics at the University of Iowa. There is currently no evidence that a person can become infected through sexual contact or through an intrauterine insemination procedure with infected sperm “.
Transmission during intercourse is thus much more likely by the usual means, namely infectious respiratory droplets.
Furthermore, it is not known how long the virus persists in semen, given that the study participants still had symptoms of Covid-19 or did not had only recently recovered (both affected patients reported "feeling better" for only two to three days).
Finally, another limit, remember that other studies have not isolated the presence of the coronavirus in patients who had recovered for a longer time. One of them, published on April 17 in the journal Fertility and Sterility, which involved 34 men in Wuhan, China, for example, had not detected any pathogen-specific genetic material in patients about a month after their diagnosis.
Source
