Sunday, February 3, 2013

Disease warning for Bali Visitors


Australians are continuing to pick up nasty infectious diseases in Bali, with new figures showing increases in the number of sexually transmitted infections and mosquito-borne diseases brought back from the popular holiday island.

Health Department figures reveal 46 per cent of the 3000 West Australians who returned from overseas with infectious diseases last year had been to Indonesia - almost all to Bali.

Some 117 people returned from Indonesia with chlamydia - 37 more than in 2011 - and 56 with gonorrhoea, up 16.

There were 421 cases of dengue fever, 262 cases of salmonella gastroenteritis and 161 cases of campylobacter gastroenteritis. The number of West Australians needing post-exposure vaccinations as a precaution against rabies after being bitten or scratched by monkeys, dogs or other animals was up 14 on 2011, with 157 cases.

Department medical epidemiologist Gary Dowse said other significant infectious diseases picked up in Bali last year included HIV, malaria, legionnaires' disease, typhus, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus.
Australian Medical Association WA president Richard Choong, who last year called on the Federal Government to help lift health and hygiene standards in Bali, said it was disappointing nothing had been done. From The West Australian Newspaper


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