Zika Virus Persistence and Higher Viral Loads in Cutaneous Capillaries Than in Venous Blood

Abstract

We collected venous and capillary serum samples from 21 Zika virus‒infected patients on multiple days after symptom onset and found RNA load was higher and median duration of virus detection significantly longer in capillary than in venous blood. These findings raise questions about the role of the capillary compartment in virus transmission dynamics.

Keywords

• Zika virus
• venous samples
• capillary blood samples
• persistence
• Zika
• vector-borne infections