- A paper published in Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that the presence of yellow fever virus was detected in a patient's urine and semen samples almost a month after the patient was infected, ScienceDaily reported Friday.
- Specifically, the researchers detected a significant amount of viral RNA in the urine and semen of a 65-year-old patient, who did not enter the toxic phase of the disease, 15 days and 25 days after the initial symptoms of yellow fever appeared.
- "We don't yet have enough samples to determine how long yellow fever virus can be detected in urine and semen, but our monitoring of the patient for 21 days after observing the first symptoms of the disease suggests the virus can be detected in these biological materials for almost a month after infection, if not longer," said study author Paolo Zanotto.
- According to the researchers, detection of the virus in urine could facilitate and speed up diagnosis of asymptomatic patients, especially in places where deaths from yellow fever have been reported.
- As detection of yellow fever virus in urine is non-invasive, it has proved useful and has become routine for several researchers who are studying the current outbreak of the disease in São Paulo State, Zanotto added.
(Ref: ScienceDaily)