Coronavirus Can Be Transmitted Sexually, A Chinese Study Says

As the research on coronavirus continues, researchers in China, under a study they were conducting, found that men who tested positive for COVID-19 have traces of the virus in their semen. This leads to the small, but very possible, chance that coronavirus can be transmitted sexually as well.

The study was conducted by doctors at China's Shangqiu Municipal Hospital, where they tested 38 men admitted to the hospital after they were diagnosed with COVID-19. The doctors found that out of the 38 men, six of them or 16% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in their semen.

"Further studies are required with respect to the detailed information about virus shedding, survival time and concentration in semen," the team wrote in a study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Even though the observation is based on a very small number, it does raise the question of whether the pandemic is also spreading sexually or not.

"If it could be proved that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted sexually ... (that) might be a critical part of the prevention especially considering the fact that SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the semen of recovering patients,” they further added in the study.

But other, independent experts are not ready to be swayed by the findings of the study as other smaller, studies have not found the new coronavirus in sperm as all the semen samples tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.

Allan Pacey, a professor of andrology at Britain's Sheffield University, has cautioned to not just focus on one part of the Chinese study as the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in sperm was not supported by data that proved if it was active and causing infection.

"However, we should not be surprised if the virus which causes COVID-19 is found in the semen of some men since this has been shown with many other viruses such as Ebola and Zika," he said.

Sheena Lewis, a professor of reproductive medicine at Queen’s University Belfast, seconded his opinion, calling the Chinese study “very small”. She explained that not only have other studies shown little or no presence of SARS-CoV-2 in tests of semen samples, but there have also been no “the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 on male reproduction” detected to date.