Researchers have suspected that the Zika virus could be transmitted via sexual intercourse after they found traces of it in semen samples from a patient.

"It is mainly transmitted through [the] mosquitoes. The Zika virus can also be sexually transmitted, but that's not what usually happens," Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit explained, as per Latin Times. "One issue, however, is that the majority of those infected will never get ill and don't know they're carrying the virus. That makes the sexual transmission a little more likely."

However, he also explained that Zika cannot be acquired in the same way as HIV or Ebola, which was spread via touching or kissing an infected individual as the latter could be transmitted through the air.

"We shouldn't compare Zika with HIV or Ebola, so people don't get the wrong idea and spread hysteria by saying Zika is the new HIV," he continued. "Zika is clearly a mosquito virus. It has adapted to mosquitoes and is usually not in contact with humans in its natural environment, the jungle."

"Unlike HIV, it hasn't adapted to humans and to being transmitted from one person to another," he added.

While the evidence showing the possibility of sexual transmission is slim and rather theoretical -- only one patient has been found having an active Zika virus in his semen -- some experts thought this risk was worrying enough to require information dissemination, according to The New York Times.

Dr. Márcio Nehab, a Rio de Janeiro-based infectious disease specialist, said that more research is required to fully establish the theory. He also emphasized that the mosquito itself is a bigger concern right now.

The case that brought the sexual transmission possibility to the spotlight was that of a 44-year-old Tahitian man who caught the virus in 2013, during an outbreak in French Polynesia. French scientists had found high levels of the virus in his semen even after the virus was no longer detected in his blood.

However, an earlier case, as far back as 2008, had also hinted at the possibility that the virus can indeed be acquired via sexual intercourse. It involved a Colorado State University biologist who returned to the U.S. from Senegal unknowingly infected with Zika.

A week after Dr. Brian D. Foy returned, he showed symptoms of the illness. His wife, who had never left the U.S., followed suit a couple of days afterwards. However, their children did not get infected. They were able to recover from the condition successfully.

Fortunately, Dr. Foy had frozen his blood samples, which were infected with the Zika virus. Later, when another scientist suggested testing for the virus, after getting negative results for dengue, malaria, and yellow fever, the results came back positive.

After evaluating various factors, including the fact that the infected couple did have sex after Dr. Foy came back, it appeared that the sexual contact influenced the transmission of the virus to his spouse.

Dr. Foy is said to be attempting to get funding to enable him to research this phenomenon.

"If I was a man and I got Zika symptoms, I'd wait a couple of months before having unprotected sex," recommended Institute for Human Infections and Immunity's Scott Weaver, who is also an expert on the Zika virus. "If my wife was of childbearing age, I'd want to use protection, certainly for a few weeks."

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