The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that men and women returning from areas where the Zika virus is actively spreading should practice safer sex or abstinence for 6 months, regardless of whether they are trying to conceive or showing symptoms.
The guidance is a change from the WHO's interim recommendation on June 7, which referred only to men and had a shorter timeframe of at least 8 weeks.
The WHO said the update was based on new evidence on Zika transmission from asymptomatic males to their female partners and a symptomatic female to her male partner, as well as evidence that Zika is present in semen for longer than thought.