Pretoria- The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says a Columbian businessman in South Africa who was diagnosed with the Zika virus on Friday has made full recovery.
According to the Department of Health, the NICD performed confirmatory test on the patient and results came out positive.
NCID Deputy Director Lucille Blumberg on Saturday said: "the NICD can confirm that indeed the test confirmed the diagnosis of the Zika Virus Infection in the Columbian businessman visiting Johannesburg. The man experienced mild illness and has made a full recovery."
On Friday, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi broke the news about the first case of the virus to be detected in South Africa, and said confirmatory tests will be performed.
The department said the businessman presented with fever and a rash approximately four days after arrival in South Africa but is now fully recovered.
“The infection was acquired in Columbia prior to his visit to Johannesburg for business. Columbia is currently experiencing a large outbreak of the Zika virus,” said the department.
“The confirmation of this particular case poses no risk to the South African population as the virus is not transmitted from human to human but through the Aedes aegypti mosquitoe, and/or possibly from mother to the foetus in pregnant women.
“However, a case of sexual transmission was recently reported in the United States, but is still regarded to be very rare,” said Minister Motsoaledi.
The virus is present in the blood of a patient for a very short time, typically less than seven days and therefore poses no danger.
A person carrying this virus in the blood will have to be beaten by a correct sub-type of an Aedes aegypti mosquito within this period for the virus to be transmitted to the next person through a bite by the same mosquito.
The Aedes mosquito that transmit the Zika virus in South America also transmit the dengue fever and yellow fever, but this viruses are not found in South Africa, indicating that the local Aedes mosquito does not contribute to the spread of the Zika virus.
“Given the frequency of travel between South Africa and a number of countries currently experiencing outbreaks of the Zika virus, it is likely that other sporadic imported cases will be seen here in travellers as has been the experience in a number of countries,” said the department.-SAnews.gov.za
