A woman might have passed the Zika virus to her male partner during sex, contradicting previous thinking that male sexual partners spread the virus, New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
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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 first known case of a woman spreading the Zika virus to a man during unprotected sex was reported on Friday in New York City, health authorities said.
Every week, doctors find out something new about the Zika virus, which has spread across 48 countries since 2015 and is poised to cross into the southeastern United States this summer. The next day she had a fever, fatigue, back pain, a rash, swelling, numbing and other symptoms.
After feeling sick for three days, she went to her primary-care provider who sent blood and urine samples for testing.
A week later, her male partner, also in his 20s, reported similar symptoms to the same doctor. 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. The greatest danger is when infection occurs in pregnancy. She developed Zika symptoms a few days later and was tested by her physician, who confirmed the infection.
In the face of the growing reality of sexual transmission of Zika, U.N. health officials issued updated guidelines earlier this year aimed at helping prevent infection. While Zika is also spread by mosquitoes, the news adds support to the evidence that sexual transmission of the virus is a threat in the United States. Male partners of pregnant women should consider the possibility that they could infect their partners via sex if they become infected.
In the NY case, two conditions also existed that increased the likelihood of sexual transmission.
Frieden urged USA lawmakers to approve extra money to fight the Zika outbreak, but yesterday Congress adjourned for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion requested by the Obama administration to fund the effort.
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Scientists only confirmed in February that virus could be spread through sex, and the head of the CDC, Dr. Tom Frieden, has acknowledged the disease remains relatively unstudied. And the man was uncircumcised, and uncircumcised men are considered at higher risk of catching sexually transmitted diseases.
