Plagues,
Pestilences and Diseases
Bali struggles with massive rabies outbreak
* From: AAP
* August 19, 2011 6:17PM
AN ongoing rabies outbreak in Bali has claimed the lives of at
least 10 people in recent months as authorities struggle to
control the disease.
Bali, a popular holiday destination for Australian tourists, has
been fighting to contain the disease with a massive program to
vaccinate animals since the outbreak was first declared in
November 2008.
The failure to fully control the disease, which is passed on to
humans through contact with dogs, cats, monkeys and other animals,
also threatens Bali's reputation as a holiday destination and
continues to worry businesses which are highly geared towards the
tourist trade.
A limited supply of post-exposure rabies treatment in Indonesia
has compounded the problem meaning bite victims risk death unless
they travel to another country for immediate treatment.
There are also concerns that the death toll, which officials say
now stands at more than 130 since 2008, may be much higher because
of a lack of proper reporting of fatalities associated with the
disease.
Despite the death toll continuing to rise, Bali's chief health
officer Nyomam Sutedja on Friday defended the government's
response to the outbreak.
The latest deaths come after the provincial government confirmed
earlier this year that the disease had spread to every district on
the main island, as well as other islands that fall under its
jurisdiction.
Mr Sutedja said 56 villages across the island were still regularly
recording rabies cases.
"The cases have dropped in 2011," Mr Sutedja told AAP, adding
there had been 10 deaths since February.
"From January to July this year there has only been 18 deaths,
while for the whole of 2010 there were 82 deaths."
In Ubud, one of the most popular destinations for foreigners,
vaccinations of animals had reached 90 per cent, he said.
But he conceded the government had fallen short of its target for
vaccinations in many other areas across the island.
The island was until recently also battling an outbreak of
Legionnaire's disease.
At least 10 Australians had been treated for the potentially fatal
flu-like disease since December last year after returning from
Bali.
It's believed they contracted the disease in the Kuta area, Bali's
main tourist destination.