The World Health Organization says it is changing its Zika virus advice, telling travelers that anyone who has visited a place experiencing an outbreak should practice safe sex or abstinence for six months.
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The new recommendations apply to both men and women, and should be followed even if neither of the partners have shown symptoms of Zika and regardless of whether they are trying to conceive or not.
China has previously announced that it would step up checks on people and goods from Singapore, where more than 240 locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed.
A new study about Zika and tears might explain why some infected patients develop eye problems.
The new study, published in Cell Reports, was carried out on mice to work out what effect Zika infection has on the eye.
And another study showed that Zika virus can be found in tears – at least in mice.
The organisation added current evidence on persistence of Zika virus in semen, its infectiousness and impact on sexual transmission remains limited.
Earlier in the week, the Philippines reported its sixth case of Zika virus in the person of a 45-year-old female from Iloilo City.
Meanwhile, 33 cases have been linked to South America.
Further research found that the tears of infected mice contained Zika’s RNA – the genetic material from the virus – but not infectious virus when tested 28 days after infection.
The Zika virus can be spread through mosquitoes carrying the virus, through sexual contact, and from a pregnant woman to a fetus. After injecting the test subjects with Zika, the researchers learned that the virus continued to “live in the eyes for seven days”, according to the Eurekalert press release.
The study, published September 6 in Cell Reports, describes the effect of Zika virus infection in the eyes of mouse fetuses, newborns and adults. And if sexual transmission is not playing a major role, it is possible that some other bodily fluid may be helping the virus’ quick spread.
Public health experts in the United States say that additional Congressional funding to fight Zika is critical because Gulf Coast states, where the Aedes mosquito that transmits Zika mostly lives, is only halfway through peak mosquito season.
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Many people infected with Zika won’t have symptoms or will only have mild ones – a fever, rash and muscle/joint aches. But after infecting neonatal mice, they found evidence of Zika infection once they were born, Apte said.
