Medical workers hold the baby girl with no infection born by a woman infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Feb. 15, 2020. The woman who were infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia and gave birth to a baby girl with no infection was cured and discharged from hospital on Saturday. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

Recent medical research by a hospital in East China's Jiangsu Province found that the novel coronavirus may cause kidney damage and affect young male patients' fertility due to a potential risk it poses to their testicular tissue.

A research team led by Fan Caibin, a doctor from the department of urology at Suzhou hospital in Jiangsu Province, posted a research article on Thursday that studied three online clinical datasets of patients to analyze the effect of the novel coronavirus on their urinary and male reproductive systems. 

The result shows that the virus might cause damage to their kidney and testicular tissue, which is in addition to several researchers suggesting that some patients have abnormal renal function or even kidney damage besides injury to the respiratory system, though the mechanism is still unknown. 

The research suggested that patients infected with COVID-19 should be evaluated for renal function and receive special care for that when receiving treatment.

In addition, clinicians should be aware of the risk of testicular lesions in patients during their hospitalization and should pursue later clinical follow-up, especially in evaluating appropriate interventions in young patients' fertility, according to the article.  

However, the research team claimed that the result cannot be used to guide clinical practice because the article has not been peer-reviewed and evaluated. 

Wuhan hospitals also conducted research to assess patients' renal function, and the result showed that renal impairment is common in COVID-19 patients, which might lead to multi-organ failure and death. 

Global Times