Just a week after issuing its previous advisory, the Centers for Disease Control is already refining recommended precautions men and women need to take before engaging in sexual contact or attempting to conceive. Men with potential exposure (ie, travel or residence in an active outbreak area) should not engage in unprotected sex for at least 8 weeks after the exposure ends. Advice to use condoms or abstain from sex also applies to currently pregnant women with potential Zika exposure. Physicians in all settings, including urgent care, are advised to counsel women who could become pregnant on strategies for avoiding Zika exposure. Specifically:
- Women without symptoms but who might have been exposed should wait at least 8 weeks after the potential exposure to attempt conception
- Women with a diagnosis of Zika infection should wait 8 weeks after symptom onset to attempt conception
The CDC says recommendations could continue to change, as understanding of the Zika virus is “still evolving.”