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When I first read about the Zika virus late last year, I learned that it is a virus that is transmitted by  mosquitoes and that it originated in Uganda in Africa. This strain of virus caused an infection known as Zika fever, with hardly any or very mild symptoms.

Later on the virus spread from the equatorial belt of Africa/Asia, across the Pacific Ocean to the Americas, and this is the cause for the current Zika virus epidemic.

This strain of Zika virus could be transmitted from a mother to her unborn fetus and can result in microcephaly, which causes brain malformation in the infant as well as other birth defects.

Adults infected by the virus could also develop  Guillain–Barré syndrome, which is a rapid-onset of muscle weakness. 

In April 2016 it became clear in MSM that the Zika virus can now also be transmitted sexually and through blood transfusions. Zika virus can also be found in men's semen up to 10 weeks after he first fell ill with Zika.

This is the latest discovery of the virus as of 28 September 2016.

Can the Zika virus be transmitted by tears and sweat?

According to a case study by the University of Utah it can.

"High level of infection could explain unusually severe illness and unconventional transmission to second patient"

Health experts are puzzled by the first Zika virus-related death in the U.S., which occured in June 2016.

Why did the patient die? It is rare for a Zika infection to cause critical sickness in adults, and even less so to be the cause of death.

What is also puzzling is how a second individual who visited the first patient in the hospital, also became ill from Zika, even though this individual did not do anything known at the time that put humans at risk of contracting the Zika virus.

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In a correspondence published online on Sept. 28 in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), researchers from University of Utah School of Medicine and ARUP Laboratories began to unravel the mystery.

"Details from the case points to an unusually high concentration of virus in the first patient’s blood as being responsible for his death. The phenomenon may also explain how the second patient may have contracted the virus by casual contact with the primary patient, possibly by touching his sweat and tears, the first such documented case." 

"Last May, Patient 1, a 73-year-old man, traveled to southwest Mexico, a Zika-infected area. Eight days after returning, he started having abdominal pain and fever, and by the time he was admitted to the University of Utah hospital he also had inflamed, watery eyes, low blood pressure and a rapid heart rate. Despite the medical staff’s best efforts to stabilize him, his condition declined rapidly. During this time, Patient 2 came to visit and reported wiping away Patient 1’s tears and helping to reposition him in the hospital bed. It wasn’t long before Patient 1 slipped into septic shock, and his kidneys, lungs and other organs started to shut down. He died shortly thereafter."

"Seven days after Patient 1’s death, Patient 2 was meeting with Swaminathan to talk about what had happened when the doctor noticed that his visitor had red, watery eyes, a common Zika symptom. Tests confirmed his suspicion, but in contrast to Patient 1 this patient only had mild symptoms that resolved within the following week."

"Like Patient 1’s death, Patient 2’s diagnosis was unexpected. The species of mosquito that carries Zika had not been found in Utah and Patient 2 had not traveled to a Zika-infected area. A reconstruction of events ruled out other known means of catching the virus. An unprecedented transmission by casual contact between the two patients was found to be the most likely explanation."

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