Health Zika Now Implicated in Male Infertility Too

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The Zika virus may be causing adult male infertility, not only nervous system damage in newborns and adults. Infecting male mice with the virus caused severe testicular shrinkage and damage in most cases, and reduced sperm levels too, scientists warn in a paper published in Nature.

Moreover, the damage caused by the virus to the adult male reproductive system may be irreversible.
The finding reinforces warnings to avoid Zika-infested locations when planning pregnancy, insofar as possible – a rule that applies to both sexes.

The aftermath of Zika infection is becoming clearer and the news is all bad. The virus has been categorically associated with causing microcephaly and other birth defects in newborns by damaging nervous and brain tissue in utero. It has also turned out that Zika can cause nervous damage in adults as well: Most infected adults are either asymptomatic or develop mild flu-like symptoms, but a fast-growing number has been developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis that usually, but not always, passes.

Usually Zika is transmitted by mosquito. The discovery that in rare cases, it can be sexually transmitted spurred Dr. Michael Diamond of the Washington University School of Medicine, Missouri and his team to look for traces of the virus in testicle tissue. And indeed, earlier this year, they reported finding it.

These and other findings impelled the Centers for Disease Control to issue an unprecedented guideline earlier this year, urging people trying to conceive to wait six months after the man's confirmed or suspected infection with Zika. The latest discoveries show the damage the virus causes to males, at least in mice.

Read more here. (Haaretz)
 
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