Updated! What can people do to be protected from sexual transmission of Zika virus?
- SitiTalkBlog
- Jul 16, 2016
- 2 min read
Information source: WHO
Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus:
All people who have been infected with Zika virus and their sexual partners—particularly pregnant women—should receive information about the risks of sexual transmission of Zika virus, contraceptive options and safer sexual practices. When feasible, they should have access to condoms and use them correctly and consistently.
Pregnant women should be advised not to travel to areas of ongoing Zika virus outbreaks.
Pregnant women’s sex partners, living in or returning from areas where local transmission of Zika virus is known to occur, should practice safer sex or abstain for at least the duration of the pregnancy.
Couples or women planning a pregnancy, living in or returning from areas where transmission of Zika virus is known to occur, are strongly recommended to wait at least 8 weeks before trying to conceive; and 6 months if the male partner was symptomatic.
Men and women returning from an area where Zika is circulating should practice safer sex, including through the correct and consistent use of condoms, or abstain from sex for at least 8 weeks. If men experience symptoms (rash, fever, arthralgia, myalgia or conjunctivitis) then they should adopt safer sexual practices or consider abstaining for at least 6 months.
Men and women of reproductive age, living in areas where local transmission of Zika virus is known to occur should consider delaying pregnancy and follow recommendations (including the consistent use of condoms) to prevent HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancies.
Transmission via Blood Transfusion:
What we know
To date, there have been no confirmed blood transfusion-transmission cases in the United States.
There is a strong possibility that Zika virus can be spread through blood transfusions.
Because most people infected with the Zika virus don’t show any symptoms, blood donors may not know they have been infected.
There have been suspected cases of Zika transmission through blood transfusion in Brazil. These reports are currently being investigated. During the previous French Polynesian Zika virus outbreak, 2.8% of blood donors tested positive for Zika and in previous outbreaks, the virus has been found in blood donors.
Zika virus currently poses a low risk to the blood supply in the continental US, but this could change depending on how many people become infected with the virus,
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