CDC: 14 more US reports of possible Zika spread through sex

Florida state health officials have reported today an additional case of Zika virus infection in Seminole County, the first case there and the 29th case seen in Florida.

Common wisdom has been that these viruses don’t usually spread sexually, but since sex partners generally live together, it has been impossible to tell whether, say, a married couple both get infected by mosquito bites or through sex. The CDC has also recommended that pregnant women postpone trips to more than 30 destinations now tackling the virus. The remaining eight cases were being investigated.

Priscila Leite, who leads the Health Ministry’s contingent, said she expects recruitment numbers to be high given the level of alarm about Zika in Brazil – particularly here in the northeast, the epicenter of the country’s Zika and microcephaly outbreaks. Like previously reported cases of sexual transmission, these cases involve possible transmission of the virus from men to their sex partners. An estimated 4 out of 5 people infected never have symptoms; when symptoms occur they may last from several days to one week.

Teams will also be on the lookout for other factors that, possibly in conjunction with Zika, could be behind Brazil’s increase in microcephaly, such as a prior infection with dengue, toxoplasmosis or the ingestion of toxins.

Thus, 14 such reports, including pregnant women, will be looked into.

The cases include several involving pregnant women, the CDC said.

Health officials “urge anyone considering traveling to countries where the virus is circulating to be aware of the need to protect themselves and others from mosquito bites”, according to a DOH statement.

Travelers were men and reported symptoms within two weeks before their non-traveling female partners’ symptoms began.

The CDC noted that there is no evidence that women can transmit Zika virus to their sex partners.

Brazils President Dilma Rousseff, right, and Director-General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, pose for photo with a T-shirt of the mosquito eradication program, during a meeting at the Planalto Presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016. “How are they going to prove that the foetus’s microcephaly was caused by Zika?” New to the list are Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, and the Marshall Islands in Micronesia.

Pregnant women and their male sex partners should discuss potential Zika exposure with the woman’s healthcare provider.

There is now no cure against the Zika virus and large-scale trials of vaccines in development are still at least 18 months away.