Dating during the Zika crisis has added another dimension to the sex lives of frustrated Miami millennials, who say they now must deal with the “latest STD.”
They’re confronting it with a mix of fear, anger, defiance – and a bit of humor.
After authorities discovered 14 cases of Zika in his Wynwood neighborhood last week – a tally that has since climbed – Petie Pizarro, 28, sought to make the most of the crisis that brought planes spraying pesticides over his condo. He cited the ensuing drama in a provocative pick up line on the popular Tinder dating app. A friend warned him to watch out, noting the app’s reputation as a hook up site.
“ ‘Everyone has to wrap it up and be careful,’ ” she texted him. Pizarro said he’s always careful.
As of Friday, there were 28 confirmed local cases of Zika in South Florida, and nearly all of them stem from Wynwood.
It’s unclear how big a factor sexual transmission is in the spread of the menacing virus that causes neurological disorders in newborns, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun to signal its concern. It’s advising not only pregnant women how to have sex, but it’s also reaching beyond to all millennials and same-sex couples to remind that mosquitoes are not the only carriers.
We’re treating it like the only way for us to get it is by mosquitoes, and that is clearly not true.
Emily Nostro, 28, special education teacher
CDC officials know of 16 sexually transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States, including one female-to-male transmission. While experts agree mosquitoes remain the main concern, recent studies indicate women may be more likely than men to be infected with the virus – possibly because of sexual transmissions.
The virus can live in a man’s semen for months after his symptoms subside. How long is unclear, but a CDC travel advisory that warns pregnant women to stay away from Wynwood also urges men there who display Zika symptoms to wait at least six months before trying to impregnate a partner.
“Sex is going to be a major player,” said Flávio Coelho, professor of mathematical epidemiology at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil and the lead author of a controversial study that found that Zika infections were much more common among women than men, likely because of sexual transmission.
Studying the results of 29,301 cases of Zika in Rio de Janeiro, Coelho found that women were 60 percent more likely than men to be infected with the Zika virus.
“The mosquito bites indiscriminately, men and women,” Coelho said in an interview. “If sexual transmission were a rare thing, you’d expect just as many cases of Zika with men and women.”
He notes that no such disparity exists with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus that is not known to be transmitted sexually.
The findings have been disputed by several scientists.
Julie Fischer, co-director of the Global Health Science and Security program at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, called Coelho’s findings “provocative,” but said too many assumptions were made without proper consideration of other factors.
“It does beg the question whether this is really women are way more vulnerable because of sexual transmission or that men who have asymptomatic disease or even symptomatic disease are not seeking health care,” she said.