Viral load. As health officials continue to monitor the rare and deadly Andes strain of hantavirus that spread across the MV Hondius cruise ship, a disturbing truth about the disease’s long-term transmissibility has emerged. A peer-reviewed study found that hantavirus can survive in human semen for up to six years and can be sexually transmitted even after a patient has fully recovered. Publishing in the journal Viruses , researchers from the Spiez Laboratory in Switzerland looked at a 55-year-