If sexual transmission turns out to be a relatively common mode of Zika transmission, the task of slowing the spread of the virus through the Americas will become all that much more hard, experts say.
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“Like previously reported cases of sexual transmission, these cases involve possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners”, the CDC said in a statement. All appear to be cases of sexual transmission.
The latest 14 cases all involve men who had travelled to Zika-affected areas, and whose female sexual partners later fell ill with Zika-like symptoms – even though they hadn’t travelled to outbreak areas themselves.
The women had not recently traveled to places where the virus is widely circulating, but they’d had sex with male partners who had recently returned from such travel and had Zika symptoms.
For non-pregnant women, the CDC recommended couples concerned about sexual transmission of the Zika virus should always wear a condom during sex or abstain from having sex.
“We thought it was important to get the word out to people to remind them that we think pregnant women should avoid traveling to Zika-affected areas”.
The Zika virus often causes mild symptoms, including fever, fatigue and rash that clear up in approximately a week.
The head of the World Health Organization has warned that the fight against Zika, a mosquito-transmitted virus linked to serious birth defects, will be long and complex. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO. The Zika virus spreads through mosquito bites and now, there is no cure for it. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue. There have been two reported cases, including a recent one in Texas, and at least two other reports of the Zika virus found in semen. The idea is to determine whether mothers whose babies have microcephaly were infected with Zika and, if so, when during their pregnancies. They also asked everyone to use condoms until further notice since no one knows for sure how long Zika survives in sperm. Doctors are waiting on results from a more definitive test to confirm Zika infection. CDC added two more destinations to its caution list Tuesday: Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
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But an association has been made between the virus and an increase in the number of newborns with a rare neurological condition in countries experiencing Zika virus outbreaks.
