Musa Pabai teases his girlfriend Hannah Wright, upon meeting her for the first time after surviving Ebola,...
Musa Pabai teases his girlfriend Hannah Wright, upon meeting her for the first time after surviving Ebola, at their home in Walakor, February 19, 2015. Pabai left an Ebola treatment centre in Liberia in November, grateful to have survived a disease that has killed nearly 10,000 people across West Africa but fearing he still could pose grave danger to the person closest to him. Pabai had stayed in Monrovia on a self-imposed exile after November, afraid that he could still infect Hannah, his girlfriend and mother of his young son, through sexual contact despite his clean bill of health. Research has shown traces of Ebola in semen of some survivors for at least 82 days after the onset of symptoms and in vaginal secretions for a much shorter period. Although there is no conclusive scientific proof these traces are infectious, anecdotal evidence of several cases in West Africa and confirmed transmission of Marburg, another viral haemorrhagic fever, have led experts to warn of the potential risk of sexually transmitted Ebola. Picture taken February 19. REUTERS/Ricci Shryock (LIBERIA - Tags: DISASTER HEALTH TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)