Viroj W
Zika virus infection is an important problem at present. The clinical presentation of Zika virus infection is usually mild or asymptomatic but it can also induce the neurological complication an teratogenic problem. In urology, the problem due to Zika virus infection is little mentioned. Focusing on the reported cases of Zika virus infection, the urological problem is not significant. Nevertheless, some cases might have the urological presentation. The problem is usually relating to the problem of thrombocytopenia due to the infection and the patients might have hematuria as a clinical presentation. Indeed, the urine examination in the patients infected with Zika virus is usually normal. However, the Zika virus exists in urine and the examination by advanced laboratory can help diagnose the infection. The positive urine sample can be observed in case with negative serum sample. According to the report by Zea-Vera and Parra, “urinary tract virus excretion at 7th day after disease onset” was observed. The exact pathology of urinary tract due to Zika virus infection is still unknown. However, there is a recent animal model study on this topic. It was seen that the virus could exist in testis and might imply some clinical importance. Chan et al. concluded that “inflammation of various tissues, especially orchitis, may be potential complications of Zika virus infection with significant implications on disease transmission and male fertility found that the alteration of cytokine in animal model could be the pathogenesis of male genitourinary problem concluded that “Our study demonstrates a correlation between ZIKV and testis infection/damage and suggests that Zika virus infection, under certain circumstances, can eventually lead to male infertility. Nevertheless, these observations might not directly imply that there will be the problem in human. A long term follow-up of human cases for the problem is required.
