LOS ANGELES—While coronavirus infection can clearly be transmitted by physical content with a person carrying the virus, there has been some confusion as to whether COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, is actually “sexually transmitted.” But a new study by medical researchers in China, where the virus was first detected, appears to show that the disease is not sexually transmissable — at least not by men.
A preliminary abstract of the study was published by the online medical journal MedRxIv, and conducted by researchers at Nanjing Medical University, and Wuhan No. 1 Hospital, which is located in the center of China’s coronavirus outbreak.
The researchers took semen samples from 12 male patients between the ages of 22 and 38 years old. At the time of the study, in early March, 10 had already been judged to have recovered from their illnesses, and were discharged from the hospital. Another two were entering the “recovery stage,” according to scientific paper titled, “Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus in semen and testicular biopsy specimen of COVID-19 patients.”
But all of the recovered or recovering patients tested negative for 2019-nCoV RNA, the genetic material contained by the novel coronavirus. The scientists also took a testicular biopsy from a deceased 67-year old male patient, who had died of COVID-19. But the sample of the patient’s testicular tissue also showed no evidence of the virus’s genetic material.
“The results from this study show no evidence of sexual transmission of 2019-nCov from males,” the researchers concluded.
But though the virus, it now appears, is not transmitted via semen, that doesn’t mean sexual activity with a partner whose infection status is uncertain would be a good idea.
The city of New York has even issued guidelines for how to safely have sex without getting coronavirus, or giving it to one’s partner. The city’s main suggestion?
"You are your safest sex partner,” the New York Health Department wrote. “Masturbation will not spread COVID-19, especially if you wash your hands ... with soap and water for at least 20 seconds before and after sex.”
According to public health expert Dr. Carlos Rodríguez-Díaz of George Washington University, in an interview with The Guardian, certain sexual acts can definitely transmit the disease, even if seminal fluid can’t.
“Kissing is a very common practice during sexual intercourse, and the virus can be transmitted via saliva,” he explained. “There is also evidence of oral-fecal transmission of the COVID-19 and that implies that analingus may represent a risk for infection.”
Photo By Victoria Islas / Pixabay
