The CDC announced Friday the first documented case of sexual transmission from a woman to a man, which occurred in New York City.
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A woman in her twenties told officials that she had unprotected vaginal sex with a male partner the day she returned home from travel to a country with high risk of Zika transmission.
The woman, in her 20s, said she had traveled to a Zika-endemic area and developed headache, cramps, fever, fatigue, rash and other symptoms during the day she flew home and after returning to New York City.
“In order to curb transmission rates via this new conduit, the C.D.C., “. recommends that all pregnant women who have a sex partner who has traveled to or resides in an area with Zika use barrier methods every time they have sex or they should not have sex during the pregnancy.
“This case represents the first reported occurrence of female-to-male sexual transmission of Zika virus”, the researchers wrote in MMWR.
New York City health officials who investigated the case said the virus present in the woman’s vaginal fluids or menstrual blood was likely transmitted to her male partner through urethral mucous or undetected abrasions on his penis.
They noted that other studies had identified the virus in the genital tract of infected women, and called for more research “to determine the characteristics of Zika virus shedding in the genital tract and vaginal fluid of humans”.
CDC have reported only 14 cases of sexual transmission of the virus, but they are highly warning people, especially pregnant women for the unsafe repercussions the virus could have on the unborn children, to use “barrier methods” while maintaining sexual encounters with a partner who could be exposed to the virus by traveling.
Studies have already shown that Zika remains in both urine and saliva long after it resolves in the blood, even though the likelihood of transmission via that route is considered extremely low. He had not had sex with anyone else or received any recent mosquito bites, suggesting the virus was transmitted via his partner. In a report issued last month, doctors said a 24-year-old Parisian woman came down with Zika symptoms after having sex seven times with a 46-year-old man.
At the moment, there’s not enough evidence to show that sexual transmission goes “beyond a pair of partners”, Brooks said.
CDC’s current guidance to prevent sexual transmission is based on the assumption that any spread occurs from a man to his partners.
After being interviewed by the New York City health department, the man declared that he had not been outside the United States for over a year.
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The Zika virus has spread to almost 50 countries, primarily in South America and the Caribbean.
