# How Can They Know Zika is a STD? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131 "2016-02-04T12:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/1 "2016-02-04T12:06:09Z")
On the surface, this seems obvious. No need to get graphic here. However, as I thought about this, I wonder if STDs - as they now say Zika is - are really spread by “sucking face” more than anything else. How do they know? And, if my suspicion is correct…is kissing quietly included in the definition as sexual? Maybe someone in the health care profession can enlighten us on how they (CDC or WHO) know what they really know. Or, is some of their base knowledge actually speculative? What’s the SD? …not STD! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/2 "2016-02-04T12:21:56Z")
There has been hints of that in the literature for a while. Then there was this 2011 paper by a friend of mine. Was the first documented case of sexual Zika transmission. He tried to get funding to study it further, but as I said in the other thread, no one cared about Zika back then. Hopefully that will change now. [Probable Non–Vector-borne Transmission of Zika Virus, Colorado, USA](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3321795/) He put his wife on as author… ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/3 "2016-02-04T13:17:43Z")
Dang. I remember reading about that article in _Science_! Still to the op - the arguments in that case were mainly that a newly returned infected but still asymptomatic person had vaginal sex with his wife, she came down with disease, the mosquitos that carry the virus were not in the home area, the timing would not fit with going via a mosquito anyway, and if saliva why not any of their four kids? Not sure how many of those apply to the Texas case. Also I do not think that it is thought that the virus spreads more through sex than through the mosquito vector, just that sexual transmission is also a reported means of spread. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/4 "2016-02-04T14:23:31Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > On the surface, this seems obvious. No need to get graphic here. **However, as I thought about this, I wonder if STDs - as they now say Zika is - are really spread by “sucking face” more than anything else. How do they know? And, if my suspicion is correct…is kissing quietly included in the definition as sexual?** Maybe someone in the health care profession can enlighten us on how they (CDC or WHO) know what they really know. Or, is some of their base knowledge actually speculative? > > What’s the SD? …not STD! 🙂 Missed this. There is no evidence AT ALL that Zika can be transmitted by casual contact (including kissing). By “sexual transmission”, they mean doing the unprotected deed. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/5 "2016-02-04T14:40:55Z")
What is kissing “quietly” ? How could noise possibly affect anything? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-they-know-zika-is-a-std/745131/6 "2016-02-04T16:02:56Z")
Some people swap a lot more spit than others.