T

he government is stepping up its research on the Zika virus, which has been suspected of causing a rare birth defect, in light of its possible spread in Indonesia.

The Health Ministry'€™s research and development agency said on Monday that it would trace back all samples of the virus, which produces symptoms similar to dengue fever, following its discovery in Jambi last year.

'€œWe will try to check again because this has become an international concern,'€ Pretty Multihartina, head of the biomedical and technology department at the research and development agency, told The Jakarta Post.

The Zika virus was detected in Jambi during a dengue fever outbreak that hit the province from December 2014 to April 2015, said Eijkman Biological Molecular Institute deputy director Herawati Sudoyo.

After taking blood samples from patients, the institute noticed that many of the samples were not positive for dengue fever, and carried out further research. It was subsequently found that one of the samples was infected with the Zika virus.

The sample came from a 27-year-old man who sought treatment at the Jambi city hospital two days after being struck with a sudden high fever, headache, elbow and knee arthralgia, myalgia and malaise.

However, the patient recovered without any complications, two days after receiving treatment.

The institute also found that the man had never traveled abroad.

'€œThe isolation and characterization of ZIKV [Zika virus] from a resident with no travel history confirm that the virus is circulating in Indonesia and that, by mimicking a mild dengue infection, this infection is likely contributing to the large number of undiagnosed cases of acute febrile illness,'€ a report from the institute, published in the Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, said.

The report suspected the incidences of the Zika virus in Indonesia had been underestimated.

'€œAlthough reported human cases of ZIKV infection have been rare in Southeast Asia, confusion with dengue and difficulty in obtaining a laboratory diagnosis are likely causing its incidence to be underestimated,'€ the report said.

'€œSurveillance must be implemented to evaluate and monitor the distribution of ZIKV and the potential public health problems it may cause in Indonesia.'€

Four out of five people with the Zika virus have no symptoms, according to the WHO. Those who do become ill typically have mild symptoms, such as a low fever, rash, joint pain, pink eye and headaches.

These characteristics have prompted senior health experts to predict the Zika virus could become a bigger threat than the Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people in Africa. They described it as a silent infection in a group of highly vulnerable individuals '€” pregnant women '€” that can be associated with a horrible outcome for their babies.

Pretty said the ministry had not been able to answer how the man in Jambi was infected with the virus when he had never traveled abroad.

'€œThere are many possibilities,'€ she said. '€œThere'€™s a possibility that we already had Zika [for a long time] but it hasn'€™t caused any deaths and thus is underestimated.'€

Pretty added that the virus might also come from foreigners traveling to Indonesia. '€œForeign tourists like to venture into remote areas [in Indonesia],'€ she said.

Herawati said the Eijkman institute had not found any other cases of Zika as of Monday.

'€œBut we will dig deeper [into the case in Jambi]. We will examine [the sample] again,'€ she told the Post on Monday. If there'€™s another dengue fever outbreak, then we might get another sample [of Zika].'€

The Zika virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947, but until last year, when it was found in Brazil, it had never been a threat in the western hemisphere.

An emergency WHO committee met on Monday to advise on the response to the Zika virus, as the number of infected people continues to soar.

The committee will decide whether to designate the mosquito-borne virus '€” which has been linked to serious birth defects '€” a global emergency meriting immediate coordinated international action, amid criticism that it has been too slow to act.
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