One of the discoverers of the deadly Ebola disease has on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 warned that sexual intercourse could make the Ebola Virus potent even after the World Health Organization (WHO) declares a place free of the disease
The WHO anticipates declaring Nigeria and Senegal free of Ebola later in the week after 42 days with no infections or record of any new case.
The 42 days is seen as the standard time frame for declaring an outbreak over, which is two times the maximum 21-day incubation period of the virus.
However, it appears the disease can last much longer in semen.
Daily Sun reports stated that an information note released on Monday, October 6, 2014 by the WHO said, “In a convalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least 70 days; one study suggests persistence for more than 90 days.”
“Certainly, the advice has to be for survivors to use a condom, to not have unprotected sex, for 90 days,” said Peter Piot, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a discoverer of Ebola in 1976.
“If we would apply the rule for double the time, that would be 180 days, six months. I think it (90 days) is probably a compromise, for practicality,” he told a news conference in Geneva. Ebola spreads via bodily fluids such as blood and saliva, but it has also been detected in breast milk and urine, as well as semen, the WHO said. The whole live virus has never been isolated from sweat, however.
The current outbreak of the Ebola Virus is known to have been the deadliest so far since the origination of the disease in 1976.
It has claimed above 3,400 people in West African countries with Guinea Liberia and Sierra Leone and few cases in Nigeria where there is no fresh record.
