Zika virus in workers: Considerations for ongoing exposure prevention

Since at least 2015, a major Zika virus epidemic has impacted the Americas and the Caribbean. There is an ongoing risk of Aedes mosquito-borne transmission in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. In these areas, as well as in places that are not experiencing active outbreaks, workers in a variety of jobs may be exposed to the virus. In addition to outdoor workers in places with ongoing, vector-borne transmission who may be exposed when bitten by Zika-infected mosquitoes, biomedical researchers studying the virus and health care workers and staff in clinical laboratories may encounter blood and infectious body fluids from infected individuals, including travelers from Zika virus-affected areas. Because of potentially serious health outcomes, including reproductive effects, sometimes associated with Zika, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health previously issued guidance to help US employers protect workers from exposure to the virus on the job. This commentary summarizes the details of these recommendations and explains their rationale, which is important to understand when adapting and implementing workplace controls to prevent occupational Zika virus exposures and infections at individual worksites. The industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, including elimination and substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and safe work practices, and personal protective equipment, serves as a framework for infection prevention practices for at-risk workers discussed here.