Zika
striking women at higher rates than men: U.S. study
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[November 11, 2016]
By Julie Steenhuysen
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Adult women in Puerto
Rico were significantly more likely to develop Zika than men,
researchers said on Thursday, raising new questions about the potential
role of sexual transmission of the virus from males to females.
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The study, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's weekly report on death and disease, evaluated more than
29,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika since the outbreak began
in Puerto Rico in November 2015.
The data show that of all Zika cases with laboratory evidence of
infection, 62 percent were female. The results pattern similar
observations from Brazil and El Salvador, the authors said.
One obvious explanation might be that pregnant women are more likely
than men to seek treatment for Zika because of the potential risk of
birth defects.
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To account for that, the researchers excluded all pregnant women who
tested positive for the virus. Of the remaining 28,219 non-pregnant
women and men testing positive for Zika, 61 percent of these cases
occurred in women over the age of 20.
The Zika findings differ from prior outbreaks in Puerto Rico of
arboviruses transmitted by the same mosquitoes as Zika. For example,
in the 2010 dengue outbreak and the 2014 chikungunya outbreak,
infections were equally distributed among men and women.
"It is possible that male-to-female sexual transmission is a
contributing factor to this skewing of the burden of disease toward
women," the CDC said in a statement summarizing the findings.
However, the contribution of sexual transmission to overall Zika
rates is just beginning to be explored, the CDC said. It could be
that women are more likely than men to seek care if they are sick,
or that women are more likely to develop Zika symptoms if they
become infected.
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The CDC is conducting blood tests of individuals living near people
with confirmed Zika to try to answer some of these questions.
Zika infections in pregnant women have been shown to cause
microcephaly - a severe birth defect in which the head and brain are
undersized - as well as other brain abnormalities. The connection
between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last year in
Brazil, which has since confirmed more than 2,000 cases of
microcephaly.
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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