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 Sexual transmission is "relatively common" and health services in
Zika -affected areas should be ready for potential increases in
cases of neurological syndromes such as microcephaly and congenital
malformations, it said.
"Pregnant women whose sexual partners live in or travel to areas
with Zika virus outbreaks should ensure safe sexual practices or
abstain from sex for the duration of their pregnancy," the WHO said
in a statement, based on advice from its Emergency Committee of
independent experts.
Previously the U.N. agency had advised pregnant women to consider
deferring non-essential travel to areas with ongoing transmission of
the mosquito-borne virus, which is spreading through Latin America,
including Olympics host Brazil.
The link between Zika and microcephaly, where babies are born with
small heads and developmental problems, as well as Guillain-Barre
syndrome, which can cause paralysis, has not been proven but studies
point in that direction, it said.
"Microcephaly is now only one of several documented birth
abnormalities associated with Zika during pregnancy," WHO
director-general Margaret Chan told a news conference. "Grave
outcomes include fetal death, placental insufficiency, fetal growth
retardation and injury to the central nervous system."
"It is important we recommend strong public health measures and not
wait until we have definitive proof," she said.
BRAZIL CONFIRMS MORE CASES
Brazil said it had confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly and
considered most of them to be related to Zika infections in the
mothers. Brazil is investigating an additional 4,100 suspected cases
of microcephaly.
"What we see in Brazil now is what could occur in Colombia and other
countries in the next few months and it's very alarming," said David
Heymann, who chairs the WHO Emergency Committee set up on Feb. 1.
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Heymann said of WHO's recommendation for pregnant women not to
travel to Zika areas: "The onus is on countries to identify and
report where they have outbreaks and where they don't."
The WHO did not recommend any general trade or travel restrictions.
But it said airports should be sprayed to eliminate mosquitoes and
their breeding grounds and authorities should consider "disinfection
of aircraft".
"We can expect more cases and further geographical spread," Chan
said. "Reports and investigations from several countries strongly
suggest that sexual transmission is more common than previously
assumed."
Bruce Aylward, WHO Executive Director for Outbreaks and Emergencies,
told reporters that sexual transmission had only been documented as
spreading from men to women.
"There's no evidence of women-to-men (transmission), so this
dead-ends," he said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles; writing by Stephanie
Nebehay; editing by Gareth Jones)
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