Bali’s emergency Nipah bat virus tourism alert with 75 per cent mortality: All tourists should be screened – here are the symptoms Aussies should watch out for
All tourists traveling to Bali will be screened for the deadly Nipah bat virus as health authorities struggle to respond to a surge in overseas cases.
Health officials on the Indonesian holiday island said any tourist showing symptoms such as a high fever or a respiratory tract infection would be sent to hospital for further tests – with those arriving from India under special scrutiny.
In recent weeks there has been an outbreak of the virus, which is carried by bats and has a very high fatality rate, in Kerala, southern India, resulting in two deaths.
There is no treatment or vaccine for the Nipah virus, which targets the brain, and the fatality rate for sufferers is estimated by the World Health Organization at between 40 and 75 percent.
Symptoms of Nipah include fever, trouble breathing, headache, sore throat and vomiting.
Health officials on the Indonesian holiday island said any tourists showing symptoms such as a high fever or a respiratory tract infection would be taken to hospital for further tests – with those arriving from India under special observation ( stock image)
Health officials in Bali to screen passengers with temperature-detecting devices (stock)
Indian tourists made up the second largest group of foreign visitors to Bali, with just 280,000 people visiting from January to August this year, according to the Bali Provincial Tourism Office.
Australians are the largest group of overseas visitors.
“We need to be vigilant about the threat of the Nipah virus,” said Bali’s health chief I Nyoman Gede Anom, according to The sun of Bali.
“At the airport, temperature detection devices are in place. If a tourist is found to have an above-normal body temperature, it will prompt further investigation,” Mr Anom added.
He stressed that the Nipah virus has not yet been identified in Indonesia, but warned that its long incubation period was a cause for concern.
The Nipah virus has an incubation period of about four to 14 days, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms of Nipah include fever, trouble breathing, headache, sore throat and vomiting. There is no treatment or vaccine for the disease, which targets the brain
Anom said Bali health officials had assembled a team of neurologists, surgeons and other specialists in case any cases were detected.
It is transmitted to humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected bats, pigs, or other humans.
It was first identified in 1999 during an outbreak affecting pig farmers and others in close contact with pigs in Malaysia and Singapore, which resulted in nearly 300 human cases and more than 100 deaths.
More than a million pigs were killed to help control the outbreak.
The WHO has confirmed that no new cases of the virus have been detected in Kerala since September 15.
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