According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus outbreak is likely to spread throughout almost all the Americas. In the last four months, authorities have recorded close to 4,000 cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. The agency noted that Zika infection is usually mild, and about 80 percent of people who are infected with the virus have no symptoms at all.
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Pregnant women should not kiss anyone other than a regular partner, Brazil health officials warned in a sign of growing concern over the Zika virus. Still, sexual transmission of Zika virus is thought to be rare; there are just three known reported cases of the virus spreading through sex.
Meanwhile, U.S. health officials on Friday said men who have been to a Zika outbreak region should use condoms if they have sex with a pregnant woman – for the entire duration of the pregnancy.
Schaffner also said that transmission of the virus through saliva seemed unlikely even though certain other viruses like hepatitis or HIV can spread through the saliva of a person, such transmissions are not very common and not the main source of spread of the infection. But in Brazil, health officials are investigating a possible connection between the virus and babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads.
The guidelines were in response to the report Tuesday by Dallas health officials who said a local resident was infected with the Zika virus by having sex with a person who had contracted the disease while traveling in Venezuela.
As concern grew over the virus in recent weeks, a string of airlines offered refunds or rebookings to people planning on traveling to affected areas.
The researchers, who cautioned any link between Zika and global warming remains unproven, said violent storms, floods and drought are prone to fostering the outbreak and spread of diseases, particularly in underdeveloped nations. Pregnant women should discuss their male partner’s potential exposures to mosquitoes and history of Zika-like illness with their health care provider; providers can consult CDC’s guidelines for evaluation and testing of pregnant women. And no pregnant woman should travel to any of the affected countries while she is pregnant.
Pregnant women will be first to receive them.
“This is not a generalised public health measure, for the love of God”, he said.
“We don’t know whether it can move from a woman to a man. We assume also that if a man can transmit it to a woman, that a man could also transmit it to another man”, Schaffner said.
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The scientists also said that further research was required to determine whether the virus would be transmissible through saliva and if yes, then to what extent can the transmission be expected. The agency had earlier suggested tests only for those with symptoms of the illness, which causes a fever, rash and red eyes.
