Ebola can remain in the reproductive system

[Luv2play]

I heard on the CBC tonight that the Ebola virus can remain a long time in the male reproductive system, ie semen, long after a patient has recovered from the disease.
Of course the fatality rate is relatively high and more so with the recent variant originating in the DRC. But it is concerning that the virus can lurk in the reproductive system even when the patient no longer tests positive to the virus in a blood test.

Not trying to fear monger but good info to know. 

[BuffaloKyle]

Male Ebola survivors told to avoid sex for six months - UG Bulletin

^One article I read said 12 months.

[b2bf]

Not necessarily a big deal if you're over 45. You're most likely dead (80%).

[+ SirBillybob]

One question that emerges here is what implications for us, particularly given the blame game history affecting MSM constituencies. If a MSM transmission event were to occur and be understandably publicized when in fact the more likely outbreak seeding scenario would be MSW … the prospects being greater for a male survivor migrating beyond the outbreak epicentre being heterosexual … history tells us what finger-pointing to anticipate. 

The persistence science itself is well established, with much meaningful input from Canada’s epidemiological think tank in Manitoba, and has real outbreak-management implications. But in comparatively well-resourced regions, the more immediate concern would almost certainly be acute symptomatic cases and conspicuous transmission clusters long before survivor-semen persistence became the dominant public discussion. Those clusters would rapidly manifest within gen pop given Ebola’s R metric, say 2.0 minimally, in which sexual transmission is but one baked in route to infection. 

Ebola’s severity works against long silent propagation. By the time residual infectiousness concerns entered mainstream local consciousness, there would likely already have been multiple severe illnesses, hospitalizations, and recognizable transmission events much closer to home than abstract outbreak reporting from afar.

That proximity itself would probably be the first thing capable of significantly materially upticking behavioural modification, including condom uptake among MSM individuals otherwise psychologically distant from risk. Of course one can remove oneself from any outbreak rekindling equation by using condoms now. It’s not as if condom use trends to invalid. 

Edited 1 hour ago by SirBillybob