Erectile dysfunction and what to know about lambda variant
Each week, the Houston Chronicle fields questions from readers about the pandemic. In this week’s COVID-19 Help Desk, we offer insight into the new lambda variant, and examine the link between COVID-19 and erectile dysfunction.
Q: What is the new lambda variant that was detected in Houston this week?
A: The lambda variant was first detected in Peru last August, and has since been wreaking havoc in many parts of Latin and South America.
In Chile, the lambda variant accounted for nearly one-third
of all cases reported in the last 60 days, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO classified the mutation as one “of interest” and has been tracking it since June; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet issued any guidance on lambda variant.
It remains a small fraction of overall U.S. cases, most of which are currently the more contagious delta variant that has ripped through unvaccinated communities across the nation.
On Monday, Houston Methodist Hospital reported its first recorded lambda variant case. Like others, the hospital has seen its hospitalization rate double since the beginning of July. Most patients admitted have been unvaccinated and tested positive for the delta variant, Methodist CEO Marc Boom said.
Q: So how concerned should I be about the lambda variant then?
A: It’s still unclear how much more transmissible or dangerous the lambda mutation is, said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Center for Vaccine
Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Early research shows lambda “looks similar in ways” to the delta variant. However, research on it is scarce, and so Hotez was reticent to say if it’s more contagious than its predecessors, namely the delta variant.
“I don’t think (lambda variant) will be a big issue in the immediate future,” Hotez said. “But down the line, it wouldn’t surprise me if it takes off.”
In June, Chilean researchers published a study of lambda cases among health care workers that found “mutations present in the spike protein of the lambda variant confer increased infectivity and escape to neutralizing antibodies.”
However, those tested for the study had been vaccinated with CoronaVac, a Chinese-made inoculation that has been discontinued.
The WHO has found that “lambda has been associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple countries, with rising prevalence over time concurrent with increased COVID-19 incidence.”
Hotez said he was far less concerned about the lambda variant than he is the delta, given the latter’s predominance in the United States. Regardless of lambda’s severity, Hotez said, it’s crucial that the United States bolster its efforts to protect other countries and, by extension, itself from new mutations that will grow stronger as they adapt to current vaccines.
“We’ve done a terrible job globally,” he said. “...And we are going to pay a price for that.”
Baylor College of Medicine President Paul Klotman said the emergence of the lambda variant in Texas should prompt the United States to more aggressively get vaccines to smaller and less-developed nations so that they can fend off new mutations of COVID-19.
“We don’t know if its going to be like the Brazilian variant that looked really bad in Brazil but never really took hold here,” Klotman said. “We’ll just have to follow it.”
Q: What’s up with COVID-19 and erectile dysfunction?
A: Such stories have for months been proliferating online, some of them drawing a direct line between COVID-19 and erectile dysfunction.
But it’s unclear if the two are actually correlated at this point, said Dr. Brian Miles, a urologist at Houston Methodist Hospital.
“It’s a possibility, but it just needs to be studied a lot better,” he said.
Even prior to COVID, it was difficult to diagnose erectile dysfunction: Men are hardly banging at the door to advertise the issue, and causes can range anywhere from physiological to psychological.
And the emotional toll inflicted by the pandemic adds to the complication of an accurate diagnosis. Miles said he’s concerned about the potential effects of so-called “long COVID” on male virility.
All of that combined, he said, make him skeptical to draw a direct line between COVID and erectile dysfunction.
“I would not want men to walk around with the sense that their current erection problems must be because of the virus,” he said.