The Zika virus can live in eyes, researchers say, after experiments on mice that may explain why some patients develop eye disease and in some cases become blind.
The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, studied the effects of Zika virus infection in the eyes of unborn, newborn and adult mice.
"Our study suggests that the eye could be a reservoir [gathering place] for Zika virus," said Michael Diamond, a professor at the Washington University who is one of the study’s senior authors.
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"We need to consider whether people with Zika have infectious virus in their eyes and how long it actually persists," he added, noting that patients could spread the infection through their tears.
The researchers are planning to expand their study to include humans infected with Zika virus.
One third of unborn babies infected with Zika have eye disease such as inflammation of the optic nerve, retinal damage or blindness, the researchers said.
In adults, Zika can cause conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye, and in some rare cases uveitis, a condition in which part of the eye wall becomes inflamed. It can lead to permanent vision loss.
Infection in the eyes means it’s possible people can become infected with Zika simply through touching contaminated tears.
It's still not clear how the Zika virus makes its way to the eyes. One possibility is that it crosses "the blood-retina barrier that separates the eye from the bloodstream, traveling along the optic nerve that connects the brain and the eye," researchers said in a statement.
Where is Zika going?
Researchers found genetic material from Zika in the tears of infected mice 28 days after infection - though not the virus itself.
"Even though we didn't find live virus in mouse tears, that doesn't mean that it couldn't be infectious in humans," said lead author Jonathan Miner, who teaches medicine at Washington University.
"There could be a window of time when tears are highly infectious and people are coming in contact with it and able to spread it."
