Upper and lower genital tract Zika virus screening in a large cohort of reproductive-age women during the Americas epidemic.

Research Question: To determine whether there is a risk of localized Zika virus (ZIKV) infection in the upper genital tract, specifically the oocytes, follicular fluids and endometrium, in exposed and/or recently infected reproductive-age women. ZIKV is an Aedes mosquito-borne Flavivirus that can lead to birth defects and to developmental anomalies when it infects pregnant women.

Design: Controlled observational clinical study following 179 female patients undergoing oocyte vitrification cycles in an academic fertility centre during the ZIKV epidemic in the French territories of the Americas.

Kinetics of anti-ZIKV antibodies after Zika infection using two commercial enzyme-linked immunoassays.

High performance assays are essential for the serological diagnosis of recent and past Zika virus (ZIKV) infections but few are presently available. We used two commercially available NS1 antigen-based enzyme-linked immunoassays to study the kinetics of anti-ZIKV IgM and IgG in 15 ZIKV-infected patients for up to 180days after clinical onset. The Diapro assay detected anti-ZIKV IgM reactivity more frequently (100%) and for longer (median 53days) than did the Euroimmun assay (60%; 13days, P<0.

Effect of acute Zika virus infection on sperm and virus clearance in body fluids: a prospective observational study.

Background: Evidence of human sexual transmission during Zika virus emergence is a matter of concern, particularly in procreation, but to date, kinetics of seminal shedding and the effects of infection on human reproductive function have not been described. To investigate the effects of Zika virus infection on semen and clearance of Zika virus from semen and body fluids, we aimed to study a cohort of Zika virus-infected men.

Methods: This prospective observational study recruited men presenting with acute Zika virus infection at Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital in Guadeloupe, French Caribbean, where a Zika virus outbreak occurred between April and November, 2016.

Decrease of mitochondrial DNA level in sperm from patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus-1 linked to nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

Objective: To study sperm parameters in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 and to analyze mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in sperm according to the HIV treatment.

Design: Observational study.

Setting: University-affiliated teaching hospital.