The CDC on Tuesday reiterated those recommendations, saying that “these new reports suggest sexual transmission may be a more likely means of transmission for Zika virus than previously considered”.
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The cases include several involving pregnant women, the CDC said.
Earlier in February, the USA experienced its first confirmed case of sexually transmitted Zika related to the recent outbreak.
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. Several involve pregnant women.
Zika infection generally causes mild symptoms, but it may be linked to thousands of cases of birth defects in Brazil known as microcephaly, which is marked by undersized heads and underdeveloped brains.
For that reason, men with a pregnant partner who have traveled to a Zika area should be rigorous in their use of a condom during sex – or abstain from sex entirely, the CDC says.
Zika virus is mainly spread by mosquito bites.
Thus, 14 such reports, including pregnant women, will be looked into.
The CDC is looking into all 14 suspected transmissions. Although there is no definitive proof that the virus is causing the birth defects, World Health Organization has declared Zika a global emergency.
The Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) confirmed the first sexually transmitted Zika case in the beginning of February. “The average person is really at very low risk of developing Zika infection or getting really sick from it”, Schuchat said.
Gamma radiation will sterilize male mosquitoes to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Brazil.
The CDC also advised South Korean men returning from any of the Zika-affected countries to avoid sex with their pregnant spouses throughout the entire gestation period or use contraceptives during sex.
Cases of active Zika transmission have been reported in 28 countries and territories in the Americas and Caribbean. “Research is now underway to answer this question as soon as possible”, the CDC said. The CDC added Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to its travel advisory on Tuesday.
But on day one of the study’s data-collection phase, the same precarious conditions that contributed to the proliferation of the mosquito-borne virus throughout the region proved to be a stumbling block for researchers, even in Paraiba state’s more-developed capital, Joao Pessoa.
Harvey Stern, medical director at Fairfax Cryobank, told USA Today that scientists do not “know how long the Zika virus can survive in semen, or whether the virus is present in the semen of men without symptoms”.
The agency said there is no evidence that women can transmit Zika to their sex partners, but cautioned that more research is needed.
Particles of Zika virus are colored red in this transmission electron micrograph.
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The teams started in Joao Pessoa, the capital of Paraiba state which is one of the epicenters of Brazil’s tandem Zika and microcephaly outbreaks.
