Zika virus: Promoting male involvement in the health of women and families.

Recent heightened media and public health attention to Zika virus (ZIKV) infection has focused on mosquito control, risks to pregnant women, and controversy over the summer Olympics. Missing from these messages is an emphasis on the essential role of men in decisions and behaviors related to ZIKV transmission and outcomes. It is our thesis that the role of men encompasses more than strategies to reduce risk of sexual transmission. Men play essential roles in decision-making affecting the couple and the family. The role of men is even more important in non-Western countries or patriarchal structures where husbands or other family members often control health-related decisions that are often considered the exclusive province of women in Western societies.

ZIKV, a flavivirus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes, has been spreading rapidly across the Western Hemisphere, where more than 60 countries and territories reported autochthonous transmission. In addition to mosquito-borne transmission, nonvector transmission routes, especially sexual ones, have also been described, but their impact during an epidemic and in nonepidemic settings remains largely unknown [1]. Most infections are asymptomatic, however people with ZIKV disease can have symptoms that include mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache, and certain less common serious neurological sequela [2]. Of particular concern is the association between ZIKV infection and adverse pregnancy and fetal outcomes including microcephaly.