Dear Editor,
I would like to discuss the publication “Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in semen of patients in the acute stage of COVID-19 infection” [1]. Kayaaslan et al. [1]concluded that “although all semen samples were obtained in the acute stage of the infection when the nasopharyngeal swab test was positive, we did not detect SARS-CoV-2 in semen.” In fact, there are some previous reports showing no existence of pathogen in semen samples [2, 3]. Nevertheless, a recent meta-analysis still noted that there is still a requirement for caution on the possibility of COVID-19 transmission via sexual contact [4]. In fact, there is a very low possibility that semen will be the body fluid leading to disease transmission. During a sexual contact, the distance between partners is very short, and the chance of transmission by respiratory contact should be a more important consideration [5].
Disclosure Statement
There is no conflict of interest.
References
- 1.Kayaaslan B, Korukluoglu G, Hasanoglu I, Kalem AK, Eser F, Akinci E, et al. Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in Semen of Patients in the Acute Stage of COVID-19 Infection. Urol Int. 2020;104((9-10)):678–83. doi: 10.1159/000510531. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
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- 5.Wiwanitkit V. Atypical modes of COVID-19 transmission: how likely are they? Epidemiol Health. 2020;42:e2020059. doi: 10.4178/epih.e2020059. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]