The Zika Virus has been a popular topic for a few months now and we were told it affected mainly pregnant women. We were also warned not to travel to certain areas for a while. Now, there have been cases of it spreading by sex. That was mainly from men, now there is a case of female-to-male. “The first case of female-to-male sexual transmission of the Zika virus has been documented in New York City,” says Marc Santora of The New York Times.
For the female-to-male transmission, some factors could have been that “the man was uncircumcised, the woman was in the early stages of her illness when her viral load was high, and she was also at the beginning of her menstrual cycle.” This is according to Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city’s health commissioner.
Here are a few ways from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent yourself from getting Zika through sexual transmission.
1. Use a condom every time with a male sex partner. As with protecting yourself from any other STD, you should use a condom. Whether it is vaginal, anal, or oral (mouth-to-penis) sex… use a condom. Especially if you or your partner has traveled to an area heavily affected by Zika. Even if he doesn’t have the symptoms, you can still get it.
2. Don’t have sex, especially if you are pregnant. (Or use a condom every time as stated above).
If your partner has had symptoms of Zika after returning from a place that has Zika, wait six months before having sex. If he had no symptoms but was still in that area, wait at least eight weeks after he returns.
With pregnant women, they say it is more crucial that they do not have sex with someone who has traveled recently to a place with Zika. It can cause a woman to lose her child or can cause microcephaly. Microcephaly causes babies to be born with brain damage and a very small head.
3. If you are returning from a place with Zika, try your best to avoid mosquitoes (although I’m sure everyone does this anyway) so that it won’t travel through that mosquito and infect someone else in the U.S.
They say male partner because before this case in New York, researchers said the virus can live longer in semen than in blood. Also because the cases before, the virus was transmitted from the man.
Just be as cautious as you are about other STD’s such as gonorrhea or herpes. Also, just in case you were wondering, a few of the symptoms for Zika include fever, a rash, back pain, fatigue, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. Be safe out there.
