According to the New York Times, if it is confirmed that Zika was spread through sexual contact, the surprisingly high number of cases would have major implications for controlling the disease.
“CDC and state public health departments are now investigating 14 new reports of possible sexual transmission of Zika virus, including several involving pregnant women,” the CDC said in a statement.
The CDC is investigating two Zika cases where the Zika virus has been confirmed in two women whose only known risk factor was having sexual contact with an ill male partner who had traveled to an area where the Zika virus was present. Testing of the male partners in these two cases is still pending, reports NBC News.
Sexual transmission of the Zika virus is believed to be extremely rare, with only a few cases ever being documented. In 2008, a researcher studying the virus in Africa was infected and came home and gave it to his wife through sexual contact. The virus was found in his semen.
But if all the women in the cases being investigated by the CDC test positive for the virus, as two already have, and four others have done in preliminary tests, the agency believes there is no other way they could have contracted the virus.
Having so many cases popping up all at once further adds to the complexity and mystery of the disease. The Zika virus has been implicated in babies born with birth defects and a neurological disorder called Guillan-Barre syndrome that causes temporary paralysis.
“We were surprised that there was this number,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the deputy director at the C.D.C., said in an interview with NBC News. “If a number of them pan out, that’s much more than I was expecting.”
“In each of the episodes, a man was traveling to a Zika affected area, developed symptoms that were consistent with Zika, and within two weeks…a female partner developed symptoms consistent with the virus,”
The Zika virus is spreading quickly across the Americas and Caribbean. The World Health organization has declared it a public health emergency of international proportions. While the virus is said to be relatively harmless, it is the possible connection of the virus with birth defects that is problematic.
