As St.Lucia faces a dramatic increase in the number of pregnant women infected with the Zika virus disease, new scientific information is being released about how the virus affects women.
A new study says Zika may replicate in the vagina for several days after infection, researchers said Thursday after using lab mice to study sexual transmission of the virus blamed for serious birth defects.
Infection with Zika via the vaginal tract may be a robust source of infection “with potentially dire consequences,” said the study by a Yale University team, published in the journal Cell.
When pregnant mice were infected vaginally with Zika, the virus amplified and spread from the genitals to the fetal brain.
When mice were infected early in pregnancy, scientists found evidence of the Zika virus in the fetal brain. Such infections were associated with fetal weight loss. “Early during pregnancy, if the mother is infected, there is significant impact on the fetus, even in wild-type mice,” she said.
Zika is believed to be transmitted primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito, but sexual transmission is also possible.
There is at least one known case of a woman infecting her partner. Multiple other cases have been documented in which men spread the infection during sex to either male or female partners.
Zika has been found to persist in semen for as long as six months.
If a pregnant woman is infected with Zika, she faces a higher risk of bearing an infant with brain deformities, a condition known as microcephaly.
Pregnant women are urged to use condoms or abstain from sex if they live in or travel to areas where Zika is circulating, mainly in the Caribbean and Latin America.
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