Researchers Say Zika Virus May Spread Through Oral Sex

Medics have warned the Zika virus could be transmitted by oral sex after a French woman caught the disease from her partner.

On Friday, experts sent a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine about the new concern and described a possible case in France.

There, a 46-year-old had just returned to Paris from a trip to Rio de Janeiro, where he’d been experiencing the symptoms of Zika—fever, headache, a rash. He and his partner, 24, had “oral sex with ejaculation,” and she became ill soon after. (The Times really gets into the weeds of the couple’s sex life, if that’s something you’re into.)

Though it’s only one case, it “shows you how elaborate the number of avenues of possible transmission can be,” Dr. William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical School, told the paper.

Until early this year, there was only one verified case of sexual transmission of the virus. But sexual transmission would an important, er, development in the virus (and attendant panic). There have now been cases reported in ten countries where no mosquitos carry the virus.

Wrap ’em up, kids.

Agencies/Canadajournal