Rabies a real risk for visitors to Bali

Tourists visiting Bali have been given a new warning about the dangers of catching rabies from stray dogs on the resort island.

There have already been four deaths reported this year from victims of dog bites.

As the government and NGOs work year-round to vaccinate stray, community-owned, and pet dogs, rabies is still prevalent on the island, the Bali Sun reported.

The head of the Health Office, Gianyar Ni Nyoman Ariyuni, said a puppy had been rescued from Sayan Village, just outside of Ubud. It bit a 46-year-old woman who was given the rabies vaccine (VAR).

The puppy later died and a post-mortem confirmed it had rabies.

“Foreigners who are bitten are routinely scheduled to be given VAR three times,” the official said.

There has been talk of culling stray dogs, which are found all over Bali.

The World Health Organisation explains that eliminating or culling a stray or free-roaming dog population does not reduce the risk of rabies and advises mass vaccination as the most impactful and cost-effective method of transmission prevention.

In the year to date there have been four confirmed human rabies deaths in Bali.

Covid no longer a global health emergency, says WHO

Covid is no longer a global health emergency, the World Health Organisation declared this week.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (above) said the epidemic has been downgraded and confirmed cases and deaths have been on a downward trend for over a year.

“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew,” Tedros said.

“It’s therefore with great hope that Covid-19 is over as a global health emergency.”

The WHO declared Covid an emergency in late January, 2020 and nearly seven million people have died from the virus globally since then.

Tedros says there is still some risk of a new variant, which could lead to another surge in cases, Travel Mole reported.

He urged governments to remain vigilant as global travel patterns start to return to normal.

“This virus is here to stay and still changing,” he said.

"In early 2020 the virus caused an unheard of global shutdown travel and border.

“It has been so much more than health crisis.

“It has caused severe economic upheaval, disrupting travel and trade, and plunging millions into poverty.”

Dr Kate O’Brien, director of WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said that declaring the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency does not end vaccination efforts.

Covid vaccine coverage for individuals at high risk remains “far too low” in many countries, such as in the African continent.