Posted on 02/22/2017 8:28:49 PM PST by nickcarraway
The mosquito-borne Zika virus doesn’t only lead to birth defects, it could also lead to fertility problems in males. Well, in male mice, at least.
A Yale University study found the virus reduced the size of testes — a condition known as testicular atrophy — in infected mice for up to 21 days. This can allow for sexual transmission of the virus and may impair male fertility.
This builds on information that’s already known about how Zika affects sperm, said Ryuta Uraki, the study’s first author and a postdoctoral associate at the Yale School of Medicine. The team of researchers studied mice infected with a non-lethal strain of Zika.
“It would be interesting to track the testosterone levels of men infected with Zika to determine if the virus affects humans similarly to our mouse model,” he said. “We want to explore the questions of how Zika is capable of persisting in the testes and why the immune system cannot eliminate the virus in these locations.”
The testes, or testicles, secrete testosterone, which is important for the physical development of young males. In adults, testosterone plays a major role in maintaining muscles, bone density and libido.
Since it came on the scene more than a year ago, Zika has afflicted people in roughly 50 countries and territories. There have been more than 5,000 Zika cases in the U.S. — mostly in people who contracted the disease while traveling, but there also have been about 220 locally acquired cases in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Connecticut, as of Feb. 14, 111 people have tested positive for Zika virus, and another 51 people tested positive for Flavivirus, a related class of viruses that include Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses.
“In humans, it has been reported that Zika can be detected in semen for prolonged periods of time after infection,” Uraki said. “Therefore, we hypothesized that Zika may replicate in the testes, and we tested this theory by using a mouse model of Zika infection. We found that Zika infection is able to replicate in the testes, and in doing so causes inflammation and decreases testosterone levels in infected mice... These findings are similar to what has been shown by other groups during Zika virus infection of mice, but our study is slightly different because we found virus in the interstitial area, which produces the majority of testosterone for the body.”
Though Zika causes mild or no symptoms in most people, in pregnant women it has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly, a condition in which a baby is born with a small head, or the head stops growing after birth.
Last month, the state Department of Public Health announced that at least two babies in the state born to Zika-infected mothers had birth defects related to the disease.
The Yale study emphasizes the need for a Zika vaccine and antiviral therapies, researchers said. In the meantime, Uraki said, more research is needed.
Well this will be good news for the Yale Women’s Center.
I hope all of today’s Yalies contract Zika. After they way they have been acting for the last year, I don’t want ANY of them reproducing.
No big deal. The marsupial generation snowflakes say they are going to cut of their genitals if Trump builds the wall anyway.
In Males, affects testosterone production necessary for bone density, muscle development, and libido
In Pregnant Females, may result in microcephally of newborns (statistically, in Florida test cases : 1%)
Needs further study ...
Why is it that mosquitos can spead Zika...but they CAN'T spread AIDS (as our government tells us).
Mosquitoes spread disease by injecting infected saliva into the puncture wound when they bite someone. In order for a mosquito to transmit a disease, the virus has to be first be able to infect the mosquito. In an infected mosquito, the virus can spread throughout its body, so it can enter the salivary glands and be present in the saliva. Since HIV does not infect mosquitos, they cannot transmit the virus because there is no way for the HIV virus to leave the mosquito digestive tract and enter the salivary glands.
The government agency known as the CDC only relays information that was determined by scientists who work both within and outside of government and from all over the world. The scientists discover the information through scientific investigation. The scientists are not government bureaucrats who must push a certain narrative to promote an agenda.
Cause and effect, or confirmation bias?
It is still very suspicious that Zika has been affecting people for decades, but it was only linked to microcephaly in Brazil. If Zika causes microcephaly, it should have been causing it long before the disease ever reached Brasil.
This is terrible, if true.
Thanks, exDemMom.
Thanks for the ping, TIK!
Fits right in the with Globalist’s depopulation agenda. Don’t look for effective methods for combating the spread.
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