A sterile female Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen on the forearm of a health technician in a research area to prevent the spread of Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.
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The Centers for Disease Control is investigating 14 possible cases of Zika virus in the US that may have been spread through sex.
Scientists had believed sexual transmission of Zika to be extremely rare.
Mosquito bites remain the primary way the virus is spread, although sexual transmission is possible, the agency added. “For the time being we are telling women to avoid sex or to be careful during sex with a partner who is coming back from an area where Zika is”. Eight other cases are still being investigated, according to a CDC statement.
All of the newly reported cases of sexual transmission have occurred within the United States.
Countries throughout the region have launched massive operations to eliminate pools of stagnant water where the mosquitoes, which also spread dengue and chikungunya viruses, can breed. However, its links to a birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads, make these reports of sexual transmission troubling for pregnant women. This includes any history of Zika-like infection.
The advice either to abstain from sex or use latex condoms during sex is now being given to all pregnant women whose male partners have been to Zika-affected countries.
“These recommendations might seem extreme to people, but the truth of the matter is we don’t yet have good scientific data to say how long the virus may persist in semen”, McQuiston said.
“I was kinda nervous when I saw the warning in Lee County”, said Kimberly Collins, who’s pregnant in her third trimester.
“These are all men in the early stages of infection, meaning that they have the ability to transmit the virus in the first two weeks of it to their wives or partners”, Hotez said. The CDC said that 84 cases of Zika were reported in the US through February 17.
In Paraiba alone, 56 cases of microcephaly have been confirmed since October and 423 suspected cases are under investigation, the Health Ministry says.
In two of the suspected cases, the infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently traveled to an area where the virus was present, the CDC said.
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Top officials from the WHO, including Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, MPH, and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne, MD, were scheduled to meet with Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, today as part of an effort to assess the country’s Zika virus situation and response to the outbreak.
