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The recognition of Zika virus infection in the Americas, its sexual and blood-borne transmission, and the associated congenital anomalies all provided the basis for a preliminary CDC report in February 2017 on persistence of Zika virus in body fluids in a cohort of 150 individuals infected in Puerto Rico (NEJM JW Infect Dis 2017 Apr and N Engl J Med 2017 Feb 14; [e-pub]). Now, a final analysis involving 295 infected individuals has been completed.
The median and 95th percentiles for time to loss of Zika virus RNA detection were 15 and 41 days, respectively (serum), 11 and 34 days (urine), and 42 and 120 days (semen). Isolation of Zika virus was successful in 2 of 36 serum samples and 8 of 78 semen samples and indicated that the maximum time …