CDC investigating possible sexually transmitted cases of Zika vi

A 16-member team of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is starting work on a “case-control” study aimed at determining whether the Zika virus really does cause babies to be born with the devastating birth defect microcephaly, as Brazilian researchers strongly suspect.

The CDC, which previously advised a one month delay of pregnancy, said it is extending the time by another month after referring to the updated guidelines by the World Health Organization(WHO) and various reported Zika cases overseas.

For pregnant women, the CDC recommends that if a male partner has travelled to an area of active Zika transmission that couples use a condom correctly and consistently for the duration of the pregnancy, or to abstain from sex entirely.

The virus has been linked in Brazil to an alarming surge in the birth of babies with abnormally small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, and other neurological disorders.

The CDC is alerting the public it is investigating 14 possible US cases of Zika virus as a “strong reminder” the virus can be sexually transmitted as well as through a mosquito bite in Zika-affected countries. Another study in Tahiti confirmed the presence of Zika in a man’s sperm.

“In two of the new suspected sexual transmission events, Zika virus infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently traveled to an area with local Zika virus transmission, “the CDC explained”.

It would take considerable research to understand how frequently Zika is spread through sex, given that four out of five people who are believed to be infected never develop symptoms, Dr. McQuiston said.

Anyone, including students, traveling to areas with documented Zika virus transmission should take precautions against mosquito bites. Doctors are waiting on results from a more definitive test to confirm Zika infection.

If sexual transmission turns out to be a relatively common mode of Zika transmission, the task of slowing the spread of the virus through the Americas will become all that much more hard, experts say.

There’s also evidence that Zika could eventually be spread by the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), which is more prevalent in the US. “For the time being we are telling women to avoid sex or to be careful during sex with a partner who is coming back from an area where Zika is”.

“There are mosquitoes biting people, and maybe there’s sexual transmission”, Foy says.

Chan is visiting Brazil along with the director of the Pan American Health Organization, Carissa Etienne, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

“I think it’s a balance”.

But with Zika, right now the only way the virus is getting to unaffected countries like the U.S.is in the bodies of travelers. The CDC added Trinidad and Tobago and Marshall Islands to its travel advisory on Tuesday.