Molecular Evidence of Sexual Transmission of Ebola Virus

Abstract

A suspected case of sexual transmission from a male survivor of Ebola virus dis-ease (EVD) to his female partner (the patient in this report) occurred in Liberia in March 2015. Ebola virus (EBOV) genomes assembled from blood samples from the patient and a semen sample from the survivor were consistent with direct trans-mission. The genomes shared three substitutions that were absent from all other Western African EBOV sequences and that were distinct from the last documented transmission chain in Liberia before this case. Combined with epidemiologic data, the genomic analysis provides evidence of sexual transmission of EBOV and evi-dence of the persistence of infective EBOV in semen for 179 days or more after the onset of EVD. (Funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and others.) I n December 2013, EBOV emerged in Guinea and quickly spread to several neighboring countries, resulting in the largest recorded outbreak of EVD in history.