Zika virus reportedly transferred from male-to-male for the first time
It has been confirmed that the first case of male-to-male transmission of the Zika virus has taken place in the US.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed officially that the virus can be transferred through anal sex, as reports come in of transmission between a couple from Dallas.
Reports state that one man had been on a trip to Venezuela, and began to exhibit symptoms of the virus two days after his return home to the US. The symptoms of the virus include conjuctivitis (commonly known as pink-eye), fever, and rashes on the skin.
The couple, who have been together for ten years, had participated in unprotected anal sex prior to the first man’s symptoms started. Symptoms of a similar nature then began for the second man about a week later, reportedly. Lab tests were carried out and identified that in both instances it was a case of the Zika virus.
The Zika virus, which is commonly passed through mosquitoes, has been declared as a global public health emergency by The World Health Organization, according to BBC News.
Doctors have described it as “a pandemic in progress”, causing infants to be born with microcephaly, which is when the brain develops at a much slower rate, and it has also been linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare nervous system disorder that can cause temporary paralysis.
In a case report on Thursday, Dr. John Brooks, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC said, “The second man had had a Zika virus infection and the only way he could have gotten it was from his sexual partner.”
Studies are now being done to assess how long the virus can survive in semen, and thus how long it is possible that the infection could be passed onto a sexual partner. The virus has previously been detected two months after symptoms began, reports say.
The majority of people who have been diagnosed with the Zika virus so far have been asymptomatic, but it is not yet clear whether a lack of symptoms means that the virus is not present in the semen. Cases of the virus being detected in the semen has been limited to the men who had shown symptoms, currently.
In order to keep learning more about the virus, the CDC hope that people will keep coming forward with their cases, and thank the Dallas couple for sharing their experience.
“We really owe a debt of gratitude to the two men who came forward as well as to the extraordinarily astute clinician [who detected it],” says Dr. John Brooks.
“We really encourage clinicians and public health officials to report cases of suspected sexual transmission to their local health departments so we can get an idea of the biology of the cases.”
Words: Georgios Hadjimichael
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