Coronavirus could be transmitted through semen, a study suggests.
Experts say they have found traces of Covid-19 in the sperm of men who have recovered from the disease.
A doctor is encouraging people who had coronavirus to abstain from sex or use condoms if further trials show the disease is passed on by sex.
A study of 38 patients found that six of them - including two who had recovered - had Covid-19 in their semen.
British experts pointed out that viruses such as Ebola and Zika can also be carried in the semen of men who have recovered from the illnesses.
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They now say figuring out how long the bug remains in the sperm should be a priority to prevent the spread of the disease, the Sun reports.
Dr Shixi Zhang, from the Shangqiu Municipal Hospital, wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open: "The survival of SARS-CoV-2 in a recovering patient’s semen maintains the likelihood to infect others."
According to the Sun, Allan Pacey, professor of Andrology at Sheffield University, said: “It shows that RNA for the virus responsible for Covid-19 can be detected in the semen of a proportion 16 per cent of men with a confirmed infection.
"This opens up the possibility that one route of infection may be through sexual contact, although this was not confirmed in the paper."
Professor Richard Sharpe, from Edinburgh University, called on scientists to establish how long the virus can stay in the sperm.
He added: “This finding raises the possibility that Covid-19 might also be transmissible via semen and thus via sexual contact, perhaps including during the recovery phase.”
