
The World Health Organisation today urged
survivors of the Ebola virus to practice safe
s*x “until further notice”.
This directive was made known because of
the discovery of traces of Ebola found in the
semen of a man six months after he
recovered from the deadly virus. 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 s*x or
that they practice safe s*x using a condom
beyond the three-month period previously
prescribed.
“Ebola survivors should consider correct and
consistent use of condoms for all s*xual 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.
Bruce Aylward, who heads WHO’s Ebola
response, told reporters last week that 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 concluded.
Recently the World Health Organisation
announced that the three countries with the
highest recorded Ebola cases have recorded
their lowest weekly number of new cases for
months.
Meanwhile, the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital Idi-Araba management team has
denied rumours that the deadly Ebola virus
has brought back its ugly head in the
country.
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