Ebola can continue living in semen of recovered patients, Bangkok doctor says

[navara]

Since I have know about this disease, I was afraid of it. Now, 35 years later many people died. The world needs 3 billion US more said Barak. Thailand gave rice in the order of 5 million bath. Perhaps they can sent a few teams of doctors to Africa to help.

[Thai at Heart]

I learnt about this from the Sunday Times.

So did he . . . . probably.

He said he had to go all the way to Harvard....

WRONG!!!! READ the WHOLE article before commenting please....

"Thiravat said that he had learned about this from Prof Dr Michael V Callahan of the Harvard Medical School when he visited Thailand in September"

Oh really. How lovely. He get to hobnob it with Harvard professors. Amazingly, as a doctor he didn't know this fact before or read about but himself.

This article is the biggest bit of name dropping ever and it actually makes the doctor look incredibly ill informed. Why would he need a doctor from Harvard to tell him a basic fact about Ebola which as I said, I discovered in a Sunday newspaper a few months ago by READING.

I wonder if the good doctor will share his entire conversation with is and what else he was educated about. He should have known this fact before.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Thai at Heart

[ldiablo]

"Ebola can continue living in semen of recovered patients"

no it does not because Ebola is a virus and virus, per definition does not live. It continue to exist.....A virus is a dead thing.

@h90Your comment is not completely accurate.

First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly.

[partington]

"Ebola can continue living in semen of recovered patients"

no it does not because Ebola is a virus and virus, per definition does not live. It continue to exist.....A virus is a dead thing.

@h90Your comment is not completely accurate.

First seen as poisons, then as life-forms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly.

This is not just a matter of splitting hairs, though it does depend on how you define "living".

Certainly a virus can exist in two states, because a large number of vaccines are inactivated viruses, that is viruses that can no longer replicate inside you when they are injected, but can cause the body to raise antibodies. The Salk polio vaccine is a prime example of this type of vaccine, where virus particles are treated with formaldehyde to "inactivate" them, and then, unable to replicate or cause the disease, they are safely injected into human beings.

It doesn't really matter if you call these "dead" viruses or "inactivated" viruses, but clearly something has been done to them that prevents them reproducing, re-infecting other people, mutating, and ultimately evolving, so killing them is a reasonable description.

[Jonmarleesco]

'According to the World Health Organisation, men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to seven weeks.' How, I wonder, have they established that?

[tifino]

...their wives died 7 weeks + 21 days later?

[WitawatWatawit]

I learnt about this from the Sunday Times.

So did he . . . . probably.

He said he had to go all the way to Harvard....

WRONG!!!! READ the WHOLE article before commenting please....

"Thiravat said that he had learned about this from Prof Dr Michael V Callahan of the Harvard Medical School when he visited Thailand in September"

Oh really. How lovely. He get to hobnob it with Harvard professors. Amazingly, as a doctor he didn't know this fact before or read about but himself.

This article is the biggest bit of name dropping ever and it actually makes the doctor look incredibly ill informed. Why would he need a doctor from Harvard to tell him a basic fact about Ebola which as I said, I discovered in a Sunday newspaper a few months ago by READING.

I wonder if the good doctor will share his entire conversation with is and what else he was educated about. He should have known this fact before.

Give it more thought, sunshine. It's equally likely the reporter was hunting for a story and picked up on something the prof said, and then beat it up and got it published. Ever thought of that scenario? That it was the reporter who had not heard of this before? That the good prof is being unnecessarily maligned by you?

[pattayasnowman]

The first discovery of viable Ebola virus in a recovered patient's (men's) semen was first announced in 1977 and confirmed by a study in 1999. It is hardly new news. In fact I believe I have mentioned it previously on this Forum, but who actually reads the posts on here.

ThIs is not based on virus isolation from semen and observed by electron microscopy

But on reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)

Simply detecting the genetic presence (Bits of the virus) in recovering patients does not automatically mean that disease transmission could or would take place or even if there is viable virus present.

In a study that showed virus was detected by reverse transcription—polymerase chain reaction in semen specimens up to 91 days after disease onset; however, these and all other non-blood body fluids tested negative by virus isolation.

(Clinical, Virologic, and Immunologic Follow-Up of Convalescent Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Patients and Their Household Contacts, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo) 1999 Oxford Journal of Infectous Diseases

"To date there has not been a single documented case of Ebola transmission from sexual activity." Scientific American

"One 1999 study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which followed 29 people recovering from Ebola and their household contacts (including sex partners) for up to 21 months, found that although four of the five tested convalescents had at least one semen sample with detected Ebola virus inside it none of their sexual partners developed symptoms of Ebola, even if they had unprotected sex during that period." Scientific American

Sorry but cannot find Reference and actual details of this study.

But an earlier study in 1995 concluded:

"no secondary cases were associated with convalescent patients during this outbreak"

(Oxford Journal of Infectous Diseases)

They all ,however, recommend the use of condoms , no doubt to cover their arse and stay on the condom manufactures Christmas Card list .

[Gonzo the Face]

What's the fuss ? - Thailand has invented the cure already.

Now I think about it, I only remember the Thai university telling me that. It must be true right ? - they wouldn't such a thing to try and get funding would they ?.

You sound like you doubt that Thailand discovered the Ebola Cure. Well the proof is in the pudding as they say.... you don't see any ebola in Thailand do you???

Just like some years ago, they discovered how to prevent common sense...... Well the proof is in the pudding as they say .....You don't see any com....... well you get the drift

[NanLaew]

12 monkeys, all over again

but now it's real

if it can live in semen, why not urine ? the prostate also ejaculates some fluids into the uretral canal once and a while, for some men more ofhen

look up: retrograde ejaculation

Our site medic gave us a presentation on viruses in general and ebola in particular. When the slide popped up to illustrate paths of ebola infection, urine was conspicuously missing from the list of bodily fluids. I thought it may be an oversight and meant to ask the medic about it but I had to go back to work. I reckoned I would ask when I saw her again.

The medic is sick today. Got a cough and a bit of a fever apparently.

Edited November 7, 2014 by NanLaew

[ggt]

Two questions come to mind...

How can you call a patient "recovered" if they still have the Ebola virus in their system?

How did you discover that semen still carried the Ebola virus?

[tigermonkey]

The first discovery of viable Ebola virus in a recovered patient's (men's) semen was first announced in 1977 and confirmed by a study in 1999. It is hardly new news. In fact I believe I have mentioned it previously on this Forum, but who actually reads the posts on here.

ThIs is not based on virus isolation from semen and observed by electron microscopy

But on reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)

Simply detecting the genetic presence (Bits of the virus) in recovering patients does not automatically mean that disease transmission could or would take place or even if there is viable virus present.

In a study that showed virus was detected by reverse transcription—polymerase chain reaction in semen specimens up to 91 days after disease onset; however, these and all other non-blood body fluids tested negative by virus isolation.

(Clinical, Virologic, and Immunologic Follow-Up of Convalescent Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever Patients and Their Household Contacts, Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo) 1999 Oxford Journal of Infectous Diseases

"To date there has not been a single documented case of Ebola transmission from sexual activity." Scientific American

"One 1999 study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which followed 29 people recovering from Ebola and their household contacts (including sex partners) for up to 21 months, found that although four of the five tested convalescents had at least one semen sample with detected Ebola virus inside it none of their sexual partners developed symptoms of Ebola, even if they had unprotected sex during that period." Scientific American

Sorry but cannot find Reference and actual details of this study.

But an earlier study in 1995 concluded:

"no secondary cases were associated with convalescent patients during this outbreak"

(Oxford Journal of Infectous Diseases)

They all ,however, recommend the use of condoms , no doubt to cover their arse and stay on the condom manufactures Christmas Card list .

Good follow-up research, but to-date there are no studies of the Zaire ebola virus strain that is the current problem. ----but I prefer to say it is better to be safe than sorry, when you are not !00 % sure, rather than ", no doubt to cover their arse and stay on the condom manufactures Christmas Card list"

[tigermonkey]

12 monkeys, all over again

but now it's real

if it can live in semen, why not urine ? the prostate also ejaculates some fluids into the uretral canal once and a while, for some men more ofhen

look up: retrograde ejaculation

Our site medic gave us a presentation on viruses in general and ebola in particular. When the slide popped up to illustrate paths of ebola infection, urine was conspicuously missing from the list of bodily fluids. I thought it may be an oversight and meant to ask the medic about it but I had to go back to work. I reckoned I would ask when I saw her again.

The medic is sick today. Got a cough and a bit of a fever apparently.

No headache I hope !

[tifino]

The N.W.O. is getting one step closer to their goal - mass population reduction.

This will be helped along, by enforced mass-neutering of all Africans, as African semen is now highlighted enemy No1, in the Ebola war.

That's one continent fixed - more still to go...

[edwarda909]

it is only due to the sexually repressive culture in America that Fox News hasn't gone on a rampage demanding that recovered male Ebola patients be quarantined for an additional 6 weeks