September 2017

Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal

Highlights: Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 23,  No. 10, October 2017

Note: Not all articles that EID publishes represent work done at CDC or by CDC staff. In your stories, please clarify whether a study was conducted by CDC (“a CDC study”) or by another institution (“a study published by CDC in the EID journal”). Opinions expressed by authors contributing to EID do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CDC or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. EID requests that, when possible, you include a live link to the actual journal article in your stories.

The articles of interest summarized below will appear in the October 2017 issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, CDC’s monthly peer-reviewed public health journal. This issue will feature Emerging Viruses. The articles are embargoed until September 13, 2017, at 12 p.m. EDT.

1. The Breadth of Viruses in Human Semen, Alex P. Salam and Peter W. Horby
   The detection of Zika virus RNA in the semen of men who have been infected with Zika virus raises the question: How many other viruses persist in semen? To answer this question, researchers searched the scientific literature and found 27 viruses that can be found in both the blood and semen of infected men. Included on this list are familiar names such as Ebola, mumps, HIV, Epstein-Barr, and herpes simplex viruses. Thus, the presence of viruses in semen is probably more widespread than currently thought, regardless of whether the virus is considered to be sexually transmitted. Although this finding leads to more questions, it highlights the need for researchers and clinicians to consider whether drugs and vaccines being developed or prescribed can be effective against viruses in all parts of the male reproductive tract that may harbor them.

Contact: Alex Paddy Salam
Epidemic Diseases Research Group, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global health,
Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7FZ, UK;
email: alexsalam@doctors.org.uk

###
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES