U.S. CDC issues guidelines for preventing sexual transmission of Zika virus

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday issued new interim guidelines on preventing sexual transmission of the Zika virus, days after confirming the first case of Zika virus infection in a non-traveler in the U.S. state of Texas.

The guidelines urged men who reside in or have traveled to an area of active Zika virus transmission and their pregnant partners should abstain from sexual activity or consistently and correctly use condoms during sex for the duration of the pregnancy.

The guidelines also said men who are concerned about sexual transmission of Zika virus to a non-pregnant partner might consider abstaining from sexual activity or using condoms consistently and correctly during sex.

The U.S. agency also updated another interim guidance recommending pregnant women without symptoms of Zika virus disease can be offered testing two to 12 weeks after returning from areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission.

Current information about possible sexual transmission of Zika is based on reports of three cases, according to the U.S. CDC.

The first was probable sexual transmission of Zika virus from a man to a woman, in which sexual contact occurred a few days before the man's symptom onset.

The second was a case of sexual transmission in Texas, in which the patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with an ill individual who returned from a country where Zika virus is present.

The third is a single report of replication-competent Zika virus isolated from semen at least two weeks and possibly up to 10 weeks after a man had Zika virus infection.

So far, there have been no reports of sexual transmission of Zika virus from infected women to their sex partners, the CDC added. Endit