First case of Zika virus being sexually transmitted from female to male reported
Woman in her 20s who returned to the US from a Zika-hit area infected her partner through unprotected sex
THE first female-to-male transmission of the Zika virus has been reported.
A woman in her 20s who returned to the US from a Zika-hit area infected her male partner through unprotected sex.
She developed symptoms the next day and her partner a week later, said health officials.
Zika is usually spread by mosquitoes and it can survive in semen for months and be passed from a man to a woman.
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But little is known about its presence in women.
Current guidance is for pregnant women to use a condom during sex with a man who has visited a Zika-infected region.
Catching the virus in pregnancy can cause birth defects such as abnormally small heads.
More than 1,600 cases have been confirmed in Brazil, and it has now spread to central America and the Caribbean.
