Bali rabies death toll tops 100

JAKARTA - An outbreak of rabies that has hit Indonesia’s resort island of Bali since late 2008 has killed 101 people, officials said Saturday.

A 50-year-old man from the island’s capital Denpasar died Thursday, becoming the latest victim of rabies, said Ken Wirasandhi, a member of a team in charge of handling the disease at the main Sanglah hospital.

“The victim showed clinical symptoms of rabies such as fear of water, light intolerance and restlessness,” he said.

Last month the Bali government launched an internationally funded campaign to vaccinate nearly 400,000 dogs, a key step in the island’s goal to eradicate rabies by 2012.

Bali health chief Nyoman Sutedja said of 101 deaths believed to have been caused by rabies, 42 of them were confirmed by laboratory tests.

“This is very worrying and could have a negative impact of Bali’s tourism,” he said.

Since the start of the year, there had been almost 38,000 cases of dog bites in Bali, compared to nearly 22,000 throughout 2009.

Official data put the number of dogs in Bali at around 450,000, but Sutedja said he suspected the number was higher, with one person having up to four dogs.

Balinese are known for their love of dogs.

The island’s animal husbandry chief, Putu Sumantra, said more than 67 percent of dogs in Bali had been vaccinated while 117,000 had been killed.

Rabies is a viral disease most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal, especially dogs.

The World Health Organisation estimated that more than 40,000 people die from rabies every year. Most deaths occur in developing countries.