Scientists are still working to unravel the mystery of which organs and parts of the body the new coronavirus can be present in and which routes of transmission are in addition to droplet and contact transmission.
During the novel coronavirus pandemic, the male testes are either considered a potential target for attack by the novel coronavirus. A Chinese research team recently discovered that a novel coronavirus can be present in the semen of men.
Previously, scientists have detected the virus in saliva, urine, and feces.
The paper, authored by Dr. Zhao Weiguo of the Eighth Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army General Hospital and Dr. Zhang Shixi of the Shangqiu Municipal Hospital in Henan Province, was published on May 7 in JAMA Network Open, an open medical journal.
But because the researchers were unable to confirm whether the virus they found was a live virus or a residual fragment of a virus, no clear answer was given as to whether the new coronavirus could be sexually transmitted.
In Shangqiu City Hospital in Henan Province, doctors tested the semen of 38 male patients and found that all tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Subjects ranged in age from 15 to 59 years. The researchers detected genetic material for the novel coronavirus in the semen of six patients, 16 percent of whom were in the "acute phase of infection" in four of their semen samples.
Two of the aforementioned semen-positive patients are in the recovery phase.
The researchers believe that this warrants particular vigilance, with one man still detecting the novel coronavirus in his semen since the 16th day after he first showed symptoms.
Previous findings from the Zhejiang University School of Medicine suggest that patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia may have an extra-long detoxification period, with a median respiratory detoxification period of 18 days and a longer fecal detoxification cycle, which is longer in men than in women.
Nonetheless, scientists believe that the likelihood that the new coronavirus can be transmitted through sexual contact is small. Dr. Stanley Perlman, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa, said, "This is an interesting finding, but a positive test for a new coronavirus in semen does not mean that the virus is infectious, there could be a residue of the virus."
Iranian scientists have also done studies on whether the new coronavirus is present in male semen. In a paper published last month, Dr. Amir Kashi, a professor at Shahid Beheshti Medical University in Tehran, said sexual transmission is uncharted territory for the transmission of novel coronaviruses and that scientists urgently need to do more research.
Last month, a study of male patients recovering from novel coronavirus pneumonia by a team of researchers from Nanjing showed that the novel coronavirus RNA test was all negative.
The results were published in the journal Reproductive Biology by a joint research team of Xiaoyu Yang of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University and Bing Yao of the Jinling Hospital of Nanjing University School of Medicine.
The researchers tested for novel coronavirus RNA by taking semen samples from 12 recovering patients and testicular samples from one patient who died of novel coronavirus pneumonia in the critical phase and found that the testes and reproductive tract of male patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia in the recovering and critical phases were not infected with the novel coronavirus.
Academician Qiao Jie, vice president of Peking University Hospital No. 3, said: "Whether the new coronavirus will affect male fertility and spermatogenesis, we need to step up research on the effects of coronavirus on the reproductive system, gametes, and embryo development."
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