Ebola 2.0: Sexual transmission of deadly virus may reignite global outbreak

Sexual transmission of the Ebola virus may have a major impact on the dynamics of the deadly disease, potentially reigniting an outbreak that has been contained by public health interventions, a new study has found. The potential for sexual transmission is high for three to four months after the virus has been cleared from the bloodstream, and possible for an average of seven months. Previous research showed that viable Ebola virus remained in the semen of disease survivors for months after it was no longer detectable in their blood, and at least one instance of sexual transmission of Ebola was reported. “We wanted to find out what role sexual transmission might play in the dynamics of an outbreak,” said Andrew Park, associate professor at the University of Georgia (UGA). The researchers developed a mathematical model to test various outbreak scenarios. They created a model population of 1,000 individuals and introduced Ebola virus to track its spread...