Monica Kilborn-Salafia was contracted the virus last year.

NSW Health said last week that she had experienced "relatively mild" symptoms and was now recovering from the disease.

However Mrs Kilborn-Salafia told the Times this week that the symptoms had been far from 'relatively mild' and that she had feared the worst given a family history of cancer.

Symptoms had included headaches, a red rash, inflamed joints and aches and pains.

She felt like she had played a sport and "wished she hadn't" - but the symptoms got worse and worse.

She said she would hate for a young child or someone older to go through the same thing.

Mrs Kilborn-Salafia's case has already been widely reported in the media.

Acting director of the NSW Public Health Unit, Curtis Gregory, said it was a timely reminder for people to take precautions against mosquito bites.

However it is still unclear where, exactly, Mrs Kilborn-Salafia contracted the virus.

She has travelled widely over the past few months and believes she may have been bitten by a mosquito inside a car she purchased from Cootamundra.

Mrs Kilborn-Salafia said it had been a difficult few months but valued the support of her family, her friends and her bosses - including husband Paul from PMS Electronics and Rob Manning at Bunnings.

She said it had particularly difficult because the symptoms came and went.

On some days she felt significantly better than others.

Mrs Kilborn-Salafia this week praised the support of the infectious disease department in Wollongong. She said they were "very sympathetic" to her recovery and did everything thing they could to assist with the process.

Blood tests were actioned quickly.

"I believe we are in good hands with our local health people," she said.

ABOUT KUNJIN VIRUS:

- Kunjin is a relatively rare disease. Symptoms include mild illness with fever, enlarged lymph nodes, rash, swollen and aching joints, headache, muscle weakness and fatigue. Some also develop encephalitis. Anyone with these symptoms of severe Kunjin infection should immediately seek medical assistance.

- In NSW Kunjin is usually found west of the Great Dividing Range, although Kunjin activity was detected in horses in coastal NSW last year. Water birds are also important hosts for the virus in Australia.

- Several viruses including MVE and Kunjin and also Ross River and Barmah Forest viruses are transmitted by infected mosquitos which breed in flooded, grassy and swamp areas and around rivers and waterways.