Vertical Transmission of Zika: Should We Be Concerned?

Stephen Redd, MD (RADM, USPHS), Director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), discusses if vertical transmission of Zika in mosquitoes is cause for concern.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“I think it’s hard to know what the real full implications of that research finding are of vertical transmission—that a mother [mosquito] can pass the virus on to her offspring through the eggs and larvae. Our expectation would be that would not be a huge problem. The main problem would be what has been experienced up to now, which has been mosquitoes becoming infected by biting infected people and then that mosquito becoming infected and infecting a human in the normal way that mosquito-borne diseases normally operate.

I think we just don’t know the full implications of it. I would say it’s not a major concern. It would be very unusual for these types of viruses to be passed in that way [and] for that to be a big part in the way that they were transmitted.”