New York City is home to the first documented case of Zika virus transmitted from a woman to a man through sexual contact, according to a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Infection with the Zika virus is known to be most harmful in pregnant women. Currently, the CDC recommends that men who have traveled to a place where Zika is spreading and develop symptoms should use condoms or abstain from sex for at least six months.
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There are two main theories as to why Zika is now posing such a threat: that the virus has mutated to become more infectious or pathogenic, or that it previously struck such small populations that it was hard to discern its health effects.
The surprising development prompted the CDC to immediately change its guidance for pregnant women in relation to the virus. From these cases, we know the virus can be spread when the man has symptoms, before symptoms start and after symptoms resolve.
The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers related to Zika infections in the mothers.
Most worrying, Zika has shed its mosquito transport dependency, becoming an efficient resident of human semen, and spread from male-to-female (and male-to-male) via sexual intercourse.
McAuliffe announced Wednesday that the Department of General Services’ Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) will begin testing mosquitoes in targeted areas across Virginia for Zika virus.
The CDC reports her partner, who had not traveled to the region, developed symptoms about a week later and also tested positive for Zika. They believe it may have spread when she was exposed to her partner’s fluids or undetected abrasions on his penis.
“So far we haven’t seen an explosion of microcephaly in other countries [outside Brazil], and that is good news”, said Marcos Espinal, director of the communicable diseases and health analysis department at the Pan American Health Organization. But once Zika spread to Brazil – a country with 200 million people having no immunity to the virus – the complications became more apparent.
He told health investigators that he had not travelled outside of the U.S.in the a year ago and didn’t have any other sexual partners or mosquito bites prior to getting sick. This advice is now being extended to female sex partners of pregnant women, the CDC said.
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“I’m happy to say patients really have been quite receptive about volunteering their specimens”, said Dr. Paul Mead, the senior epidemiologist at the CDC who is running the study. And the man was uncircumcised, and uncircumcised men are considered at higher risk of catching sexually transmitted diseases.
