The CDC has issued guidelines focusing on stopping men from transmitting the virus through sexual contact.
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The New York case – the first confirmed transmission from a woman to a man – raises the possibility that men who have not traveled to affected areas could still wind up carrying Zika virus, adding to the ways in which it can spread.
Nationwide, more than 1,300 people in all 50 states and Washington have been diagnosed with Zika.
The case documented in New York City isn’t surprising, said Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause a birth defect called microcephaly, or an abnormally small head and brain.
Adult female mosquitoes to be used in Zika virus research are seen under a microscope at the Sun Yat-Sen University-Michigan University Joint Center of Vector Control for Tropical Disease on June 21, 2016, in Guangzhou, China. The day after she had sex, she had a fever, fatigue, a rash and body pain – all typical signs of adults who are infected with Zika. Specimens are tested for Zika virus RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay (RT-PCR) at CDC; those testing positive are further evaluated by virus isolation techniques. Three days later, he went to the same care provider as his partner, where he got samples of urine and blood serum collected. The doctor tested him even though he hadn’t traveled from a Zika outbreak area and no cases of female-to-male transmission had been reported. He also told authorities that he had condomless vaginal sex only one time with her female partner, identified as the previous patient, the day she returned to NYC.
It’s unclear whether the virus was exposed to her male partner via vaginal fluids or menstrual blood.
That means anyone who travels to a country were Zika is spreading should take precautions to protect their sexual partner upon returning home – regardless of gender.
The CDC recommends that all pregnant women who have a sex partner who has traveled to or resides in an area with Zika use protective measures such as condoms or abstain from sex during the pregnancy.
The virus is usually transmitted by a yellow fever mosquito, which thrives in warm climates.
He noted that mosquitoes remain a major way the Zika virus is spread. The CDC report cites a nonhuman study that found Zika in vaginal fluid of nonpregnant females can live up to seven days after exposure.
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In the NY case, two conditions also existed that increased the likelihood of sexual transmission. Uncircumcised men tend to be at greater risk for sexually transmitted diseases.
