While experts have long debated whether monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease or not, a new study published in the journal Lancet shows that the infectious virus can persist in semen for weeks after recovery. Health officials have maintained that the virus is not a sexually transmitted disease and anyone can contract the disease by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials such as bedding.

It has also shown to spread through close contact of mucosa or non-intact skin with infectious material, or large respiratory droplets during prolonged face-to-face contact. But, whether monkeypox virus can be sexually transmitted via genital fluids has remained under investigation, wrote Francesca Colavita, a researcher from the Laboratory of Virology, National Institute for Infectious Diseases 'Lazzaro Spallanzani' (IRCCS), in Italy, in the paper.