Because the body's immune system is less active inside the eye, infections of the eye can sometimes linger for long periods after they have been cleared from the rest of the body, the researchers noted. For example, in previous research, some patients infected with Ebola were found to have that virus in their eyes months after they were considered cured of the disease.
The researchers in the new study said they are planning to conduct more experiments to find out whether Zika can persist in the compartments of the eye. If Zika does linger in the eye, this could have implications for corneal transplants, because the virus might be spread from a donor to a recipient during transplantation, the researchers said. In the future, it's possible that doctors may need to test corneal tissue used for transplantation for the Zika virus, the researchers said.