Just when you think you are safe from Ebola, bam! Ebola Casanova!
And Ebola Casanova, a man who survived Ebola, is now a carrier for what might be the worst STD ever!
According to this article in USA Today:
A Liberian woman appears to have contracted Ebola from unprotected sex with a man who survived the virus, health officials said today.
The 44-year-old woman was diagnosed March 20, the first new Ebola case in Liberia in a month. Doctors were perplexed by her case, because she hadn’t been to a funeral or had any other contact with current patients, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the woman did have unprotected vaginal intercourse a few weeks earlier, with a 45-year-old Ebola survivor who has been free of the disease for months. The man developed the disease in September and was discharged from a treatment center in early October. That man also had sex with a second woman, who has not tested positive for Ebola, the CDC says.
Although doctors have known for some time that the Ebola virus can survive in semen long after a patient is considered cured, there has never been a clear, documented case of this happening, according to the CDC report.
People who survive Ebola — and whose blood tests show no sign of the virus — are generally considered to be non-infectious. The virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids and typically spreads through blood, a fact that has put health workers at very high risk of Ebola. People cannot spread the virus through casual contact, such as working in the same office or riding the bus. Ebola does not spread through the air.
I’m sure women in Liberia are heartened to know that Ebola IS officially an STD that can hide in sperm.
