Gay Men Are Vulnerable To Sexually Transmitted Zika Too

Gay men must beware, the virus doesn’t just affect pregnant women.

While much of the media attention surrounding sexually transmitted Zika virus has centered around heterosexual couples, due to the association with pregnancy risk, gay men and others who engage in unprotected anal sex should note that Zika virus can affect anyone.

“The take-home message is you have to consider any kind of intimate contact between an infected person with Zika and a non-infected person as a potential risk situation, regardless of gender,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota has said.

Because Zika virus’s symptoms are often mild, many people who are infected don’t even realize that they’ve had the disease. Still, men who have sex with men should care about protecting themselves from the disease.

In addition to birth defects, Zika virus has been linked to two neurological conditions, encephalomyelitis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, in people recnetly infected with Zika.

The CDC currently recommends that men use condoms for vaginal, anal and oral sex for at least eight weeks after traveling to a Zika outbreak area.

SOURCE: Huffington Post