Yellow fever in Semen (make-up post for 10/16)

Yellow fever is one of the most historically relevant and influential virus of the past three to four centuries. A Flavivirus, it's famously transmitted by arthropods (google the Panama Canal), and its colored name and peppered past comes from its inducement of jaundice. Given these methods of transmission and clinical presentation, it's most common location for identification is blood. However, a recent publication has brought that into surprising question.
In Sao Paulo Brazil, a convalescent patient, who had recently travelled to another area of the country, was infected with Yellow fever, presenting the typical signs of fever, chills, myalgia, and nausea. Physicians originally tested for the related dengue (also flavivirus) and found no trace, but his symptoms worsened; so then they obtained more serum in addition to urine samples, deciding to test them for YFV (yellow fever virus). Here's the kicker: the serum originally tested negative with qRT-PCR;using the prior assay and a IgM-antigen capture ELISA, tested urine(!!!!) returned positive results. Specifically, it tested phylogenetically positive for the South American I strain cluster of these viruses. Other samples of these strain were obtained in a bordering area of Brazil to which our patient travelled (Minas Gerais).
The major changes in this viral samples genome were in NS5, the RdRp gene. These types of changes have previously been associated with alterations to viral replication, immune reactions, and protein interactions. These results, according to the paper authors, suggest that semen and urine may be new sources of samples to test for YFV.

I'll yellow feva, see-ya later! :) ;)

Javarcia Ivory

Reference: Date: January 2018 [ahead of print]
Source: Emerging Infectious Diseases 24 (1) [edited]
<https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/1/17-1310_article>


Carla M. Barbosa, Nicholas Di Paola, Marielton P. Cunha, Manica J.
Rodrigues-Jesus, Danielle B. Araujo, et al. Yellow Fever Virus in
Urine and Semen of Convalescent Patient, Brazil.