Australian government urged to help lift health standards in Bali

**balinews** · 12-01-2012, 08:53 PM

The Australian Medical Association says the Federal Government needs to help lift health and hygiene standards in Bali as West Australians increasingly see the island as a "northern suburb of Perth".

WA Health Department figures reveal 44 per cent of the 2600 West Australians who returned from overseas with infectious diseases last year had been to Bali.

Almost 4 per cent of infectious diseases in WA tracked by the department last year were contracted in Bali, with dengue fever the most common.

There were almost 270 cases of the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease and almost 500 cases of gastroenteritis caused by salmonella and campylobacter bacteria.

Other infections included more than 120 cases of sexually transmissible infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea.

More than 140 West Australians needed a course of precautionary rabies vaccinations after being bitten or scratched by monkeys, dogs or other animals.

Health Department medical epidemiologist Gary Dowse said rabies remained endemic in dogs in Bali and about 150 Balinese people had died from the untreatable disease in the past three years.

Dr Dowse said other serious diseases contracted in Bali last year included legionnaires' disease, measles, typhus, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and HIV.

WA's love affair with Bali keeps smashing records, with the number of holidaymakers from Perth quadrupling in the past five years as people are lured by cheap airfares and hotel deals.

AMA WA vice-president Richard Choong, who has seen hundreds of patients on their return from Bali, said Australians were increasingly returning with diseases he had not seen before, such as typhus, which is a bacterial infection spread by lice or fleas.

"These figures are only the tip of the iceberg … these are just the reported cases," Dr Choong said.

"The Australian Government really needs to address this problem because it is such a popular holiday destination."
Health Consumers Council executive director Michele Kosky said people needed to be wary of Bali's limits for providing health care and be responsible for their actions.

Intervene in Bali health: AMA - The West Australian

**CanonMan** · 13-01-2012, 06:07 AM

Why should Australia sort out the health issues here? That should be the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities. Ahhh but yes I forgot, with all the skimming that goes on here there's obviously no cash left for that, and to protect the bules what a joke. They don't give a crap about their own why should they worry about the foreigners? People will always come to Bali.