Verifying alleged outbreaks is critical to effective control & prevention TABANAN Regency, Bali, Indonesia––Rabies-infected, or rabies-suspected? That is the question that Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases moderator Arnon Shimshony and Shamsudeen Fagbo, a leading Saudi-based One Health and animal rights advocate, took up in mid-May 2022, responding to recurring alleged rabies flare-ups in Bali, […]
Mad dogs and Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika
Governor repeats mistake that touched off an island-wide rabies outbreak DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly, each time expecting a different result, Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika on June 26, 2014 fitted himself for a strait jacket. Disregarding four years of steady progress toward quelling a canine […]
Perilous pathogens & pathological PR: the rabies war in Bali
by Lisa Warden, director, DOGSTOP Re “Dog-eating, dogfighting, & corruption feed recurring rabies outbreaks in Bali,” posted by ANIMALS 24-7 on May 1, 2014, the ongoing experience in Bali provides an excellent case study in trial and error, at the cost of human and animal lives. The […]
Political foes close Bali Animal Welfare Association
Veterinarians complained UBUD, Bali, Indonesia––The Bali Animal Welfare Association was on September 30, 2013 closed by police for allegedly operating without permits, apparently following complaints from veterinarians about competition from the BAWA street dog clinic. “Our ambulance and spay/neuter team are not allowed to work until we get the clinic permit, which will take a […]
BAWA achieves Bali rabies turnaround
UBUD, Bali, Indonesia–Vaccinating 210,000 dogs in the six months ending on March 31, 2011, the Bali Animal Welfare Association achieved a 48% reduction in human rabies deaths and a 45% decrease in dog rabies cases. This was the fastest containment of a rabies outbreak in the history of Indonesia, achieved even as a 13-year-old outbreak continues in Flores, where […]
U.S. issues rabies advisory for Bali visitors as control effort stumbles
“The CDC advises travelers to take precautions” JAKARTA, DENPASAR––The U.S. embassy to Indonesia on January 12, 2009 issued the outbreak notice that the Bali tourism industry had feared would be coming since mid-November 2008, when reports first circulated about four human rabies deaths resulting from dog bites in two villages on the peninsula south of […]
Bali animal welfare societies battle rabies outbreak
Four human victims DENPASAR, Bali, Indonesia––Someone brought a rabid dog to Bali. Yachting, fishing, or trading goods, the culprit apparently came by boat, docking near Ungasan village, where about 170 families live on a peninsula forming the southernmost part of Bali. The rabid dog arrived at about the same time that more than 200 animal […]