Australian diagnosed with Zika By Rania Spooner and Jewel Topsfield Editorial - Times 2 Page 2 The fast-spreading Zika virus is probably being under-diagnosed in south-east Asia, infectious disease experts warn, including that of an Australian who was infected after a monkey bite in Bali. 
The virus, which is being investigated for links to potentially fatal defects in unborn babies in South America, is believed to have been transmitted primarily by mosquitoes, with only rare reports of exceptions. But the authors of a report into the case of a 27-year- old Australian man have suggested that a monkey bite he received at the Ubud Monkey Forest could have been to blame.
The man was diagnosed with acute Zika virus when he arrived at the Royal Darwin Hospital with fever and a rash seven days after the bite, the report says. He had also been bitten by mosquitoes while holidaying in Bali.
The authors of the report, including doctors from the hospital and academics from the Victorian Diseases Reference Laboratory and the Menzies School of Health Research, said that while mosquito-borne transmission was possible, the monkey was a plausible route of transmission.
They also noted the virus has similar symptoms to other viruses, such as dengue fever, and the limited availability of the test to detect Zika virus in Indonesia.
"Transmission of Zika virus by monkey bite or other (non- mosquito) routes, and attribution of illness to dengue or other infections, may be more frequent than the absence of prior reports suggests," says the report.
Researchers studying an outbreak of dengue fever at Jambi Province in central Sumatra in early 2015 also pointed out the possibility that Zika was being under- diagnosed due to similarities with the symptoms of other diseases.
Frilasita Aisyah Yudhaputri from the institute's virus research unit said though the virus was believed to have existed in Indonesia for some time, the Asian strain was not believed to cause birth defects.