Chinese researchers who tested sperm of men infected with COVID-19 found that a minority of them had the new coronavirus in their semen, opening up a small chance the disease could be transmitted sexually, scientists said on Thursday.
A study by doctors at China's Shangqiu Municipal Hospital of 38 men hospitalised with the disease found that six of them, or 16%, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in their semen.
The researchers said that while the findings were preliminary and based on only a small number of infected men, more research is needed to see whether sexual transmission might play a role in the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
"Further studies are required with respect to the detailed information about virus shedding, survival time and concentration in semen," the team wrote in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
"If it could be proved that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted sexually ... (that) might be a critical part of the prevention," they said, "especially considering the fact that SARS-CoV-2 was detected in the semen of recovering patients."
Independent experts said the findings were interesting but should be viewed with caution and in the context of other small studies that have not found the new coronavirus in sperm.
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