Women may also transmit the disease sexually, a new study finds
Consumer Reports / By Jeneen Interlandi / July 15, 2016
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported the first case of Zika involving female-to-male sexual transmission. A New York woman returning from a Zika-affected country (the report did not specify which country) passed the virus to her sexual partner.
Until now, all cases of sexually-transmitted Zika have involved men passing the disease to their sexual partners. Because the virus is known to live for months in semen, making infected men chronic carriers, the CDC advises men who have been infected with or exposed to Zika to wait at least six months before having unprotected sex, especially if their partner is or is hoping to become pregnant.
By contrast, women who may have been exposed to Zika are advised to wait just eight weeks before having unprotected sex because until now, the virus has not been detected in vaginal swabs and no cases of female sexual transmission have been documented.
Today's report, combined with one earlier this week in the Lancet Infectious Disease, may soon lead to changes in those guidelines.
As the Lancet reported, the virus was also detected in the vaginal tract of a 27-year-old French woman, where it persisted for at least 11 days after it disappeared from her blood and urine. The report's authors say that they have not tested to see how infectious the vaginal virus might be, but their findings indicate that it’s at least possible for women to harbor Zika as men do. “Our findings raise the threat of a woman potentially becoming a chronic Zika virus carrier,” the authors wrote.
The CDC and others are working to answer a long list of questions about sexually transmitted Zika infection, including how long the virus can live in semen, how long in vaginal fluid, and whether sexually transmitted Zika presents a greater or lesser risk of birth defects than transmission via mosquito.
“We have been looking at our transmission guidelines,” says CDC spokesperson Candice Hoffman, “It’s possible that they may change in the next few weeks based on recent findings.”
In most people, Zika infection is asymptomatic and largely inconsequential. But in pregnant women, it can be devastating. The virus can cross the placenta, infect the unborn fetus, and cause a range of serious problems, including congenital microcephaly, and in some cases, miscarriage.
Both Florida and New York have seen more than 200 cases of travel-related Zika infection. And Texas, New Jersey, and other states have witnessed their first cases of Zika-related microcephaly, all among travelers recently returned from Zika-affected areas. So far, no cases have been reported from mosquito bites received in the continental U.S., but experts at the CDC and elsewhere say it’s only a matter of time until such locally acquired cases emerge.
Congress is heading into recess today, and so far has not passed a Zika funding bill.
Read more about how you can, and can't catch Zika.
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