Contagious hantavirus strain may stay in human sperm for six years – and turn into an STI https://t.co/Kw83t5Ao2B pic.twitter.com/D9vEvvw33Y
— New York Post (@nypost) May 15, 2026
As health officials continue to monitor the rare and deadly Andes strain of hantavirus that spread across the MV Hondius cruise ship, a disturbing truth about the disease’s long-term transmissibility has emerged.
A peer-reviewed study found that hantavirus can survive in human semen for up to six years and can be sexually transmitted even after a patient has fully recovered.
Publishing in the journal Viruses, researchers from the Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland looked at a 55-year-old man who had been infected with the Andes strain six years prior to the study.
The virus was completely gone from the man’s blood, urine and or respiratory tract. But it was still lurking in his semen.
They concluded that it might still be transmittable to others for up to 71 months after infection.
AC