India, May 16 -- A study has raised fresh concerns about whether hantavirus could potentially spread through sexual contact. Researchers from Switzerland's Spiez Laboratory found that genetic traces of the Andes strain of hantavirus remained detectable in a man's semen nearly six years after his initial infection, according to a peer-reviewed study published in 2023. This comes as health officials, including the World Health Organization (WHO), are monitoring an outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship that has infected at least 11 people and killed three.

The study followed a 55-year-old Swiss man who contracted the Andes hantavirus during travel in South America in 2016. While the virus disappeared from his blood, respiratory trac...