Viruses in sea of men

Viruses can be transmitted in just about any means. For instance, viruses can live in men’s semen. With the recent Zika virus outbreaks, it was found that the virus can be present in semen. This raised the question to researchers at the University of Oxford of how many viruses can be found in semen. They found that there are at least 27 viruses that can make their way into human semen, which include Ebola, Zika, HIV, chickenpox, mumps, chikungunya JC virus, simian foamy virus, etc.  The rest of the body can be free of the virus except for the testes because this is an “immunologically privileged” site in the body that the immune system is hand’s off. There are at least 11 viruses that can survive in the tests which include dengue and influenza. Viruses will also vary in how long they can survive and be transmitted in semen. Zika virus can last up to 6 months in semen and be sexually transmitted up to 41 days.

Though some of these viruses can be spread sexually, it is still unclear if they all can. Having identified viruses in sperm, this begs the question whether these viruses can infect sperm. Infections in sperm can affect sperm DNA and cause mutations, which can affect the egg and pass on this mutation to offspring.

Since the number of viruses present in semen is quite significant, scientists may also have to consider where treatments for certain viruses are effective in all parts of the body, such as the male reproductive tract.

For the full list of viruses in semen see the table in the second source (pdf version)

 Jessica N

Sources

1.      https://www.livescience.com/60400-viruses-semen.html

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/11/pdfs/17-1049.pdf