Breaking: First Case of Sexually Transmitted Zika Virus in U.S.

Medscape Medical News is reporting that a person in Texas has become infected with the Zika virus after having sexual contact with an infected person who had recently visited a country where the virus is present.  Dallas County’s health department and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed the case.

"It is the first U.S. case of Zika virus infection in a non-traveler in the continental U.S.," an unnamed CDC spokesperson told Medscape Medical News. The agency also assured the media outlet that "there was no risk to a developing fetus" in the Texas case, which some health activists think hints at a possible same-sex encounter.

The CDC added that "based on what we know now,” the best way to avoid becoming infected with the Zika virus is to prevent mosquito bites and avoid exposure to semen from anyone who has either been ill from the infection or possibly exposed to the virus. In this current case, the man's semen was tested and was positive for the Zika virus.

Currently, the CDC estimates only 1 in 5 people who are infected with Zika get sick, so many don't know they have it. The health risks to pregnant women and their fetuses are severe, though, and concentrated cases of microcephaly have occurred in South America.)

"Sexual partners can protect themselves by using condoms to prevent spreading sexually transmitted infections,” the CDC warns, including Zika. “People who have Zika virus infection can protect others by preventing additional mosquito bites."

That's because when a non-infected mosquito bites someone with Zika, the blood-sucking insect then becomes a bloodeborne carrier and can pass the virus on to anyone else it bites. 

In this developing story, more information about the disease is being discovered every day.

Zika cases reported in the United States during this recent epidemic have involved people who had traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean, where mosquitos are known to be spreading the virus.

But previous reports have also suggested that sexual transmission was possible. Last year, the CDC published a report about that very possibility.

The news from Texas follows the World Health Organization declaring the virus a global public health emergency after acknowledging there appears to be a link between the Zika virus and an unusual number of babies in Brazil being born with microcephaly, a birth defect in which a child's head is smaller than expected. Because pregnant women (and their unborn children) appear to be particularly impacted by the virus, the CDC advises women who are pregnant or may become pregnant to postpone travel to any Zika hot zone in Latin America and the Caribbean.