Local Updates of Bali

Rabies are the suspected cause in yet another death in Bali as Sanglah General Hosptial officials report that a 45-year-old woman, Ni Made Ruken, died on Wednesday, January 28, 2009. The woman, reportedly bitten by a dog that entered her home 3 months ago, was admitted to the isolation unit of the hospital shortly after midnight on Wednesday complaining of breathing difficulties and displaying clinical symptoms consistent with a rabies diagnosis. The woman died some 12 hours later.

The specially “rabies team” of physicians working at the Sanglah hospital caution that a definite linkage of the woman’s death to the current rabies outbreak can only be confirmed after the results of laboratory tests are received. To date, 6-7 deaths have been linked to the rabies outbreak prompting the massive inoculation program now underway in Bali.

Dog Smuggling Effort Foiled

Proof that Bali officials are deadly serious in their order to close the island’s borders to the import and export of dogs, cats and monkeys was made clear when officials at the Gilimanuk Port in Northwest Bali seized and euthanized 17 pedigree puppies discovered on board a local tourist bus on Wednesday, January 28, 2009. The animals were part of a group of 19 dogs hidden away on the bus in plastic containers. Two of the dogs were dead when discovered by port quarantine officials due to heat exhaustion.

The dogs were destroyed by officials shortly after their confiscation who injected the animals with strychnine. On Monday, January 26, 2009, officials at the Gilamanuk Port managed to thwart the illegal entry of another 20 pedigree dogs hidden in baskets on a Bali-bound tourist bus.

Bali Seeks 50,000 More Rabies Vaccine Dosages

According to the Jakarta Post, Bali Animal Husbandry officials are requesting 50,000 additional doses of rabies vaccines from the Health Ministry in Jakarta to allow mass inoculation of Bali’s dog population to continue. To date an estimated 35,184 dogs have been given the vaccine.

Animal Health officials indicate that for dogs to obtain a complete immunity from rabies a series of three inoculations are required over the course of one-year.

News by Bali Discovery Tour - balidiscovery.com