The first case of Zika spreading sexually from a female to a male has been documented in New York City, according to the CDC.
All previously reported cases of Zika being sexually transmitted have been spread by men.
In this case, the woman is in her twenties, not pregnant, and she reported that she engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse with a male partner, the day she returned to New York City after traveling to a country with ongoing transmission of Zika.
She experienced headache and abdominal cramping while she was at the airport. The next day she had a fever, fatigue, back pain, a rash, swelling, numbing and other symptoms. On the third day, she visited her primary care doctor who took blood and urine samples and the Zika virus was detected in both.
Seven days after the sexual intercourse, her male partner, also in his twenties, developed a fever, a rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. The man went to the doctor on day nine and was diagnosed with the Zika virus. He had not traveled outside of the United States during the year before his illness, did not receive a mosquito bite within the week and he did not have any other sexual partners. The timing and the sequence of events supported the female-to-male Zika virus transmission through unprotected sexual intercourse.
