Male Ebola survivors are now being told to avoid sexual contact indefinitely after a West African man transmitted the virus five months after he was cleared. As HNGN reported in March, a Liberian woman fell ill one week after having sex with a 46-year-old man that had Ebola symptoms in September. She has since died. Another woman who had sex with the same man around the same time tested negative for the virus, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Health officials have said that once a person is considered recovered, they are no longer contagious via contact with bodily fluids like blood, urine, saliva and sweat. Previously, the CDC suggested that Ebola survivors avoid sexual contact for three months, but in a recent report titled, "You've Survived Ebola! What's Next?," the CDC urges male survivors to avoid intercourse indefinitely until more is known about transmission after recovery.
The CDC suspects that 10 cases of Ebola transmission occurred due to intercourse post-recovery. Those statistics have not been confirmed.
