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Sex After a Field Trip Yields Scientific Discovery
sciencehabit writes "A US vector biologist appears to have accidentally written virological history simply by having sex with his wife after returning from a field trip to Senegal. A study just released in Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that the researcher, Brian Foy of Colorado State University, passed to his wife the Zika virus, an obscure pathogen that causes joint pains and extreme fatigue. If so, it would be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease. The curious case also solves a viral mystery that's been going on for years."
How many of Mr. Foy's female graduate assistants were tested for the disease?
For all we know, there could be an outbreak going on right now at the CSU campus.
The World is Yours.
...to act as a control if you want.
I'll be in the booth with no disease and Christina Hendricks. For science of course.
Not really.
Consider that infection risk from tainted blood transfusion is 95% for HIV. While vaginal intercourse is 0.03%
If the virus is much less infectious it probably becomes extremely unlikely for sexual transmission. Sortof like airborn transmission of HIV is also possible if you sneeze out a chunk of blood phlegm when someone is yawning nearby, but so extremely unlikely that it's not really worth mentioning.
Hey, baby, want to make virological history?
Eww, wait... no, that came out wrong. GAH! No, it didn't come out wrong like that... Someone isn't getting laid tonight. Sheesh, I am terrible at pick-up lines.
His wife must be excited!
I doubt it. Seriously:
What kind of lame-ass, geriatric sex do these people have?!?
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
Add to this all the inconvenience of being followed around all day by researchers documenting her every move, hoping to catch any mating procedures on film.
What if what really happened is he gave his wife Senegalese crabs?
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Both the doctor and student got the disease from insects in Senegal. The doctor returned home and infected his wife. But, being a grad student, even if he did screw his wife the doctor would still get the credit.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
"If so, it would be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease. "
There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off
There's another on my brother, whack it off
There's a dozen on my cousin's
I can hear the bastards buzzin'
There's a skeeter on my peter, whack it off
- John Valby
Sung by Boy Scouts around campfires everywhere since 1960
--
BMO
"People I am not: Brian D. Foy, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University"
Hmmmmm
I drink to make other people interesting!
There is no direct evidence that Foy's wife was infected through sexual contact, but the circumstantial evidence is strong.
Would it be possible that the virus got transmitted by direct contact of open wounds on the two? (Like scratches, sores, etc....). I would not exclude the possibility
I work in life sciences and I know for a fact that in order to have scientific proof for something like this you would need to have it confirmed in a quite large number of subjects. A single suspected instance of the transmission is far from being a scientific discovery .
I have to agree though, it makes for a good, attractive title. Coming up next on sciencemag.org: "Sex uncovers wormhole! A scientist finds that after having had sex for 10 hours he traveled backwards in time to find himself at only four minutes after having started....". Stay Tuned.
If I'm lucky....
They considered that, but circumstantial evidence pointed to sexual transmission. According to TFA, the virus has to complete a 2-week life cycle within the insect before it can infect the next human; Foy's wife fell ill just 9 days after his return. Thus she did not get it from an insect bite. In addition, the mosquitoes in that region are not known carriers. (Different species.)
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Yes there have. From 'kipedia
Sexual transmission of HCV is considered to be rare. Studies show the risk of sexual transmission in heterosexual, monogamous relationships is extremely rare or even nil.[22][23] The CDC does recommend the use of condoms between long-term monogamous discordant couples (where one partner is positive and the other is negative).[24] However, because of the high prevalence of hepatitis C, this small risk may translate into a nontrivial number of cases transmitted by sexual routes. Vaginal penetrative sex is believed to have a lower risk of transmission than sexual practices that involve higher levels of trauma to anogenital mucosa (anal penetrative sex, fisting, or use of sex toys).[25]
The reason it's so rare is it essentially requires broken skin on both partners, and for the virus to find it's way out of the wound on the infected partner into a wound on the other infected partner(or for hetero sex, the infected partner to be a menstruating woman). So yeah, it's rare, but it's certainly not impossible. This is also why it's not really considered an STD, it's PRIMARY infection vector is not sexual contact.
Monstar L
"Sex transmits a disease just like it has been documents to happen in boars." (see TFA)
vs
"A mosquito gets in his (most likely) crappy, soft shell backpack in Senegal, stays inside it for two days while crossing a third of the globe, manages to survive the beating while being thrown around in the Senegalese roads and at two or three different airports, survives some cold temperatures in the cargo bay of an airplane (is stuff stored at room temperature or slightly below there?) gets safe and sound to his home and then chooses to infect only the person he had sex with but none of his kids.
Yes, you're right it sounds much more likely the tiny bug survived all that.