It now recommends that pregnant women’s sexual partners – male and female – use protection or abstain from sex, said John Brooks, CDC’s senior medical adviser, in an interview with the Associated Press. This condition might increase the amount of virus in sexual excretions, though cases of male transmission without hematospermia have been reported too.
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Seven days after sexual intercourse, her male partner, also in his twenties, developed fever, a maculopapular rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis.
Three new cases of the Zika virus among San Francisco residents have been diagnosed in the past two weeks, the city’s Department of Public Health announced Friday. He reported no other recent sexual partners or mosquito bites in the preceding week, and no travel outside the USA for the previous year.
These infections have been tied to thousands of cases in Latin America of a devastating birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and neurological issues.
It’s unclear how much virus was in her vaginal fluids, but animal models have shown that the virus can be present in those secretions.
“This is an important event but not entirely unexpected”, said Jay Varma, deputy commissioner at the New York City Health Department.
About 600 pregnant women have tested positive for the Zika virus in the US, with about half of those women living in Puerto Rico or other territories.
Eleven countries had reported cases of the virus’ sexual transmission from male partners.
Health officials from NY reported the case in the CDC’s weekly report on death and disease. There have been no reports of mosquitoes spreading Zika in the continental United States so far. Early cases of male-to-female transmission involved hematospermia, blood in seminal fluid. She developed Zika symptoms a few days later and was tested by her physician, who confirmed the infection.
Here’s the full story: a 20-something woman traveled outside the country to an area of Zika transmission, and began experiencing some symptoms (a headache and abdominal cramping) while waiting for her flight back to NYC.
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The CDC has confirmed 40 Zika cases in Pennsylvania since the winter, all in people who contracted the virus while visiting an outbreak-affected area overseas, health officials have said. The yellow fever mosquito, which is the main transmitter of the disease in tropical regions, has not been found in NY. She started her period on the second day after returning, which she said was heavier than usual.
