The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) issued a press release on Friday announcing that the first documented case of sexual transmission of the Zika virus from a woman to a man has been recorded in New York City.
Advertisement
Zika causes a host of birth defects, especially microcephaly, a condition that stunts the growth of a fetus’s brain and the skull to collapse on it. The virus also causes miscarriages and still births.
Health authorities are urging pregnant women to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas, and to abstain from sex or use barrier methods of contraception during sex if their partners – whether male or female – have traveled to or live in areas where the Zika virus is present.
She sought treatment for fever, rash, fatigue, back pain and numbness in the hands and feet among other symptoms a day after returning to the country. Tests showed she was infected with the Zika virus. The female patient had traveled to an area affected by ongoing Zika transmission and had sought medical treatment for symptoms before having sex with her partner.
The CDC said it is revising its recommendations for sexually active people who want to reduce their risk and for couples who are not pregnant or concerned about pregnancy. Now officials have documented the first case in which a woman apparently infected a man through unprotected sexual intercourse.
It’s unclear whether the virus was exposed to him with her vaginal fluids or menstrual blood.
Eleven countries, including the United States, have reported cases of apparent sexual transmission of Zika virus from one person to another, according to the World Health Organization. In addition, the woman involved in the case started her period shortly after they had sex.
The CDC said it is updating its guidelines because the current advice to prevent sexual transmission of Zika “is based on the assumption that transmission occurs from a male partner to a receptive partner”. Health department officials then confirmed her infection. The pair had vaginal intercourse only, no oral or anal sex.
Following the first reported occurrence of female-to-male sexual transmission, the CDC expanded its prevention guidance for pregnant couples, which had focused exclusively on men. In a study published last month, a team led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin detected Zika virus in the vaginal fluid of rhesus macaque monkeys. To put that into comparison, there have been 1,305 travel-related cases of Zika in the mainland United States and no known cases where Zika has been transmitted via a mosquito bite.
The case likely does not complicate efforts to fight the virus or show an important additional pathway for transmission, Brooks said, because female-to-male transmission is relatively hard.
In one case, the virus was spread a few days before symptoms developed.
Advertisement
In the NY case, for example, several factors lined up to allow the disease to spread. And the man was uncircumcised, and uncircumcised men are considered at higher risk of catching sexually transmitted diseases.
