Sperm containing coronavirus raises possibility of sexually transmitted Covid-19, Chinese study shows
- Doctors at Shangqiu Municipal Hospital found 16 per cent of men hospitalised with disease tested positive for Sars-Cov-2 in their semen
- Researchers caution that the findings are preliminary and far from conclusive
Chinese researchers have found Covid-19 in the sperm of a small number of men, raising the possibility that the virus could be spread via sex.
The study by physicians at China’s Shangqiu Municipal Hospital looked at only 38 men at the hospital who had tested positive with disease, and of that already small group found that a minority – only six – were found to have SARS-CoV-2 in their semen.
“The virus responsible for Covid-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has been detected in stool, gastrointestinal tract, saliva and urine samples,” the researchers’ report said. “However, little is known about SARS-CoV-2 in semen.”
While the study published by JAMA Network Open – an online, open-access medical journal – was small and hardly definitive, researchers say it points to the need for further research into how the virus is spread and how likely it is to be transmitted sexually.
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“If it could be proved that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted sexually … [that] might be a critical part of the prevention,” the team wrote in the JAMA, “especially considering the fact that SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the semen of recovering patients.”
