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Suspected Zika patient in Batam tests negative
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A health official checks the temperature of a passenger arriving from Singapore in Yogyakarta on Friday. Singaporean authorities said on Sept. 1 that 151 people had tested positive for Zika, including two pregnant women and a number of foreigners living and working there. (AFP/Suryo Wibowo)
A woman initially suspected of being infected by Zika in Batam, Riau Islands, has tested negative for the virus.
The woman has been treated at the Embung Fatimal Hospital in Batam since Sunday after a thermal scanner at the Batam port showed that she had a high temperature.
“We have carried out two laboratory tests on samples of her blood. She just has a common fever. She is not infected by the Zika virus,” the head of hospital’s medical service division, Sri Widjayanto, announced at a media conference at the hospital on Tuesday.
Widjayanto said the first test was conducted in Batam and the second at the Health Ministry’s research and development center in Jakarta.
He said the thermal scanner at the Batam port registered the woman’s temperature at 37 Celsius degrees upon her arrival from Singapore, where 275 people have been diagnosed with Zika.
“Because the thermal scanner bell went off, we transferred her to the hospital for treatment. She is still being treated at the hospital,” Widjayanto added.
Meanwhile, the head of Riau Islands Sanitation and Disease Control Agency, Slamet Mulsiswanto, said a third test was being conducted in Jakarta to make sure that she was free of the virus. The result will be available on Thursday.
Slamet said his office would continuously hold preventive measures by cutting the reproduction cycle of mosquitos. (bbn)
