CDC Offers New Zika Guidelines for Reducing Sexual-Transmission Risk, Caring for Pregnant Women

By Kelly Young

Edited by André Sofair, MD, MPH, and William E. Chavey, MD, MS

In a new guideline released Friday, the CDC recommends that men who have traveled from an area with circulating Zika virus and who have a pregnant partner should abstain from sex entirely or use condoms consistently for the remainder of the pregnancy. This applies to vaginal, anal, and oral sex.

For men with a travel history whose partners aren't pregnant, they "might consider" following the same advice. Testing men for the purposes of establishing sexual transmission risk is not advised.

In a separate guideline, the CDC says asymptomatic pregnant women with a history of travel to Zika-affected regions should be offered serologic testing between 2 and 12 weeks after their return to the U.S. Symptomatic pregnant women should be tested with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction within the first week of illness; IgM and plaque-reduction neutralizing antibody testing should be performed on specimens collected 4 or more days after symptom onset. Asymptomatic pregnant women who live in a Zika-affected area should be tested at the beginning of prenatal care and again in the middle of the second trimester.

In other Zika news this week:

• Brazilian officials report having detected Zika virus in patients' saliva and urine, although it is not known whether the virus could be transmitted through those fluids, Reuters reports.

• The World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency over the increase in microcephaly cases potentially related to Zika.

• Brazil reported a case of Zika transmission through blood donation. In the U.S., people with recent travel to affected countries were asked to defer donating blood for at least 28 days.