The CDC said the precaution is in place “until we know more” about the dangers of sexual transmission of the mosquito-borne virus, which is linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly in newborns in Brazil.
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The primary means of transmission remains the mosquito. Also on Friday, the United Nations chief of human rights, and subsequently the secretary general, said that countries which restrict access to birth control and abortion-which includes numerous 31 countries where the disease is burgeoning-must repeal those laws in response to Zika.
Also on Friday, the World Health Organization said that 26 countries in the Americas now have active Zika outbreaks.
Scientists have suspected that Zika could be transmitted sexually, and there have been scattered reports of similar occurrences in recent years.
“Men who live in or travel to areas of active Zika infections and who have a pregnant sexual partner should use latex condoms correctly, or refrain from sex until the pregnancy has come to term”, Frieden told CNN’s Gupta, “or until a test is available to see if he could possibly infect her”.
“It is important for residents to remember that there is no immediate threat to their health and well-being if they have not traveled to the known affected areas”, Williams wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
The CDC has stopped short of backing the warnings issued by Brazilian health officials that pregnant women should avoid the saliva and urine of male partners with Zika. It is asking health care providers to perform antibody blood tests on pregnant women between two and 12 weeks after they return from travel. In a statement Friday to The Associated Press, the health ministry said that it’s sending a set of Zika samples to USA health authorities.
Colombia has reported more than 20,000 Zika cases. Because there is now no vaccine or treatment for Zika virus, the best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites. “I wish we could do more about Zika today”, CDC Director Tom Frieden said during a morning news conference.
“They can transmit the virus to mosquitoes that then pass the virus on to someone else”.
The CDC’s guidance does not specifically call for abstinence as the preferred or only option in situations involving pregnant or non-pregnant sexual partners, although it does say it should be “considered” along with consistent use of latex condoms for concerned couples.
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Thursday, the CDC is now advising any man who has traveled to one of the affected countries to use condoms during all sexual encounters with their pregnant partner for the duration of the pregnancy.
The CDC also updated its advice to women who are already pregnant and who have been or are in Zika-affected areas.
While most people have mild symptoms at worst, health officials say the virus is suspected of having a link to an alarming spike in babies born with abnormally small heads – a condition called microcephaly – in Brazil and French Polynesia.
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Colombian health officials say three people there have died of the Guillain-Barre syndrome after contracting the Zika virus.
