Could Kissing Actually Transfer the Zika Virus? Here's What Experts Say

Health experts are saying that Zika virus could actually be transferred via kissing unless it's just a quick kiss and does not involve the exchange of saliva.

The new reports come after the vaccine for the virus has been given a green light to be tested on humans and be further studies. Dr. John Brooks, a senior medical adviser at the Office of Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that Zika can live in saliva as long as it persists in one person's blood, which could reach up to seven days, CNN reported.

Dr. William Schaffner, the medical director at the National Foundation for Infectious Disease, however, said, "But we're talking about deep kissing, or French kissing, where a lot of saliva is exchanged and the tongue goes into the partner's mouth. It would have to be what I call passionate kissing."

Brooks pointed out that these new reports will not stop him from giving his wife a kiss as there have been no reports about deep kissing alone significantly affecting the transmission of the disease.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, echoed Brooks' sentiments saying that it can be transmitted via saliva is "going way past probability." Fauci pointed out that although it is possible, it is a very rare event if it ever occurs at all adding that a mosquito bite is still the main way for the virus to be transmitted.

The question about kissing playing a role in the spread of Zika virus was brought up by a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In it, it was explained that a 24-year-old woman living in Paris tested positive for Zika after having a sexual contact with her boyfriend, who recently returned from Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is facing an outbreak of the disease.

The man reportedly had Zika-like symptoms such as rash, fever, and body aches while in Brazil. When he returned to Paris, he and his girlfriend had sexual intercourse seven times with "ejaculation only during oral sex and not during vaginal sex." Accordingly, the woman's urine and saliva tested positive for Zika but a vaginal swab tested negative.

The lead author of the case study, Dr. Eric D'Ortenzio, said that the transmission was most likely semen via oral sex. However, researchers could not rule out the possibility that other bodily fluids such as pre-ejaculate secretions and saliva exchange via deep kissing might have caused the transmission of the disease.