JAKARTA, Indonesia – The Zika virus may have been in Indonesia for over 40 years but there has never been an outbreak – the concern now is to ensure that it stays that way. 

On Wednesday, February 3, Deputy Director for Fundamental Research at the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Professor Herawati Sudoyo, told Rappler that the first Zika virus was detected in Indonesia as early as 1977. 

“The Zika may [have been] already here about 40 years ago, but you don’t have any outbreak, so we lived with this virus I think. And with the one in Jambi, the guy had never been anywhere [outside Indonesia] meaning it was in Sumatra or Jambi area. But there is no such outbreak,” she told Rappler.

Sudoyo was part of the group that detected the Zika virus in a 27-year-old Indonesian man in Jambi during the dengue outbreak there between December 2014 and April 2015. 

She said it was the first case detected in Indonesia, but before that, two other Australians were detected to have the virus when they returned home, after visits to Indonesia.

“They are travelers who visited Jakarta back to Australia and developed symptoms. One actually returned from Bali and he was also Zika-positive,” she said. (READ: FAST FACTS: Zika virus)

Sudoyo however could not give an estimate of how many people may be living with the virus in Indonesia today, since there has never been a systematic surveillance of the virus. She said if the government were to decide to perform one, the Eijkman Institute is capable of supporting the government due to the technology it has.

Sudoyo recommended a systematic surveillance would be helpful to ensure an outbreak doesn’t occur, and suggested increased information dissemination.

“If possible we could give information to people traveling to countries with the outbreak. I also think the Ministry of Health is writing a protocol which will be given to many stakeholders,” she said.

Her statements come a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Zika virus a global health emergency, as the virus spreads rapidly in South America. Also on Wednesday, President Joko Widodo scheduled a meeting to discuss prevention efforts against the virus.

For decades after Zika was first discovered in Uganda in 1947 the mosquito-borne virus was of little concern, sporadically causing “mild” illness in human populations.

But although the symptoms of virus have until now appeared benign, growing indications of a link to microcephaly and a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome have stirred growing alarm. 

Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue fever and the chikungunya virus. It produces flu-like symptoms including a low-grade fever, headaches, joint pain and rashes. – Rappler.com