Obviously, there is a huge amount of concern about the Zika virus at the moment. The virus, which is believed to have caused thousands of cases of brain deformities in newborn babies in the Americas, has already spread to 23 countries and was recently declared a “global emergency” by the World Health Organization.
Disturbingly, we have received some reports that suggest that Zika might be in Indonesia. Previously, researchers announced that there had been a single diagnosed case of Zika in Sumatra, found sometime between December 2014 and April 2015.
More recently, there have been media reports about a 27-year-old Australian man who was diagnosed with Zika in Australia shortly after being bitten by a monkey in Ubud’s Monkey Forest.
Mentioned in some of those reports is another case, from back in 2013, in which a 52-year-old Australian woman was diagnosed with Zika in Australia after returning from a brief trip to Jakarta. The case was detailed in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
The woman was initially diagnosed with Dengue fever after returning home. It is believed to have been the first case of Zika infection detected in an Australian who had traveled abroad.
Australian medical researchers say that 1,500 Australians have been tested for the virus since 2012, and so far only seven have tested positive.
The possibility that the woman contracted Zika while in Jakarta is certainly troubling, but there is not enough information to know whether she actually acquired the virus while she was here. Also, the fact that there have been no other reported cases of Zika here since then should hopefully put our minds at ease until more concrete information comes to light.
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