Isolation of Zika Virus from Febrile Patient, Indonesia

Abstract

Arthropodborne viruses (arboviruses) cause substantial human disease worldwide and have a pronounced effect on public health throughout Asia. Zika virus, discovered in Uganda in 1947 (1), is a flavivirus related to the following viruses: dengue (DENV), West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, and yellow fever. Like DENV, Zika virus is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. Zika virus emerged as a public health problem in 2007, when it caused an epidemic in Micronesia (2). Since then, the virus has caused epidemics elsewhere in the Pacific islands (3) and recently emerged in South America (4). Zika virus has been reported to cause mild and self-limited infection that can be misdiagnosed as dengue because of similar clinical features and serologic cross-reactivity (2). Zika virus has not, however, been reported to cause substantial thrombocytopenia or result in the serious vascular leakage that can be fatal in DENV infection.